Noriyuki Higashiyama

Childhood (1966–1979)

According to his book Kawasaki Kid, Higashiyama's paternal great-grandfather was Russian. When he was still a baby, his grandfather drunkenly poured boiling water on his leg, which left him with a deformity in his left foot. Because of this burn, he stated that his leg remained bandaged until he was about three years old. Higashiyama was known to train very hard, doing 1,000 sit-ups daily, running 100 kilometres (62 mi) and maintaining a body fat percentage of 9%. He worked out intensely because the deformity in his leg caused pain in his hip joint without muscle training. Despite his leg deformities, he was athletic and could do a backflip at the age of nine.

His parents divorced when he was three years old due to his father's drinking problem. Worried that Higashiyama would become a drunkard like his father and grandfather, his mother repeatedly advised him, "When you grow up, be careful that alcohol doesn't ruin your life." He credited this guidance with helping him avoid getting deeply intoxicated when he did drink. His mother later remarried when he was in the fourth grade, but his stepfather gradually began to drink and became violent, not only towards his mother and Higashiyama but also towards his sister. He spent his days hungry due to poverty and frightened by his stepfather's violence. He and his younger sister were raised by their mother, who worked at a barber shop. They lived in poverty and sometimes struggled to find food, but a Korean family who ran a barbecue restaurant in the neighborhood would share their meals with them, helping them stave off hunger.

Early career (1979–1985)

In 1979, his mother, who worked at a barbershop for NHK employees in Shibuya, Tokyo, gave him tickets to watch a singing show. Higashiyama went with a friend to see the show at NHK. On their way home, while waiting at a traffic light at Shibuya Crossing, he caught the eye of Johnny Kitagawa, who was driving by and scouted him directly. He was in the sixth grade at the time.

Higashiyama, who had always suffered from hunger, stated that after he joined Johnny's, he was grateful that Johnny Kitagawa would take him out to eat after dance lessons. When he entered high school, he left home to escape his stepfather and began living in Johnny's dormitory. Higashiyama mentioned that for a while after he joined Johnny's, he struggled to dance well because he found it strange for a man to sing and dance as an idol at that time. However, he was "struck by lightning" when he saw a Michael Jackson video in the dormitory, and he honed his dancing skills in admiration of him. In the dormitory, he also practiced acrobatics with the other trainees who lived there.

In 1981, the "B Team" was formed with Kazukiyo Nishikiori, Katsuhide Uekusa, and Yasuyuki Matsubara. The following year, in 1982, Matsubara was replaced by Higashiyama, and the group was renamed Shonentai. They primarily worked as backup dancers for Toshihiko Tahara and Masahiko Kondō.

On October 23, 2010, he married actress Yoshino Kimura. They had been in a relationship for about two and a half years since performing together on stage in March 2008. Their first child, a daughter, was born in 2011, followed by their second child, also a daughter, in 2013.