is a Japanese vlogger, actor, recording artist and influencer in the Philippines. He has been active in his YouTube Channel, FumiShun Base, since 2015. His fame grew when he became the first pure Japanese official housemate in Pinoy Big Brother: Otso, a reality TV show for Filipinos. The "Konnichi-Wonder Vlogger ng Japan", as he is called, Fumiya finished the 9-month running show as the 5th big placer.
Personal life
1995 – 2017: Early life and career beginnings
Fumiya was born on March 19, 1995, in Hamamatsu Shizuoka Japan. He was raised alongside his three siblings: two brothers named Yuya and Shunya, and one sister named Asami. He is the eldest in their family.
After his high school graduation, Fumiya started living alone in Tokyo while pursuing his degree in Hotel Management.
He joined the hospitality workforce after his graduation from school and worked in a hotel in Ginza as a bell boy. He resigned from his hotel job after two years and decided to pursue his dream of establishing his own clothing line.
He thought that being famous would make his clothes sell faster and one way would be to become famous as a vlogger. He then started making YouTube videos.
2017 – March 2020: Life in the Philippines
Having observed their hotel guests, he realized that being able to speak English is important for his business plans. On the 28th day of April 2017, he flew to the Philippines to study English.
He attended the Lyceum of the Philippines in Manila for his English lessons.
He learnt of the PBB audition from his Filipino followers. He attended and documented his audition for his vlog content and he was able to pass all the screenings and became an official PBB OTSO housemate.
After PBB, he stayed in the Philippines to pursue a career in show business.
April 2020–present: Life in the time of the COVID-19 Pandemic
On March 20, 2020, a few days after Metro Manila, Philippines was placed under Enhanced Community Quarantine to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, Fumiya travelled back to Japan. Since several cities in Japan were also placed under a State of Emergency and it was also strongly advised for their citizens to stay at home, Fumiya spent majority of his time at his family home in Hamamatsu City Shizuoka.
Career
YouTube
Fumiya established his YouTube channel, FumiShun Base, with his younger brother, Shunya, on December 2, 2015, but they did not post their first video until September 6, 2016.
While studying in the Philippines, he continued to upload videos in his YouTube channel as a means to update his parents of his whereabouts.
He started uploading YouTube contents for Filipinos on May 31, 2017. His first video was a reaction video of Sarah Geronimo's Kilometro. From then on, he started gaining Filipino subscribers.
In April 2018, his channel hit 100K subscribers awarding him with the YouTube Silver play button. On March 7, 2019, he hit the one million subscribers mark, awarding him with a gold play button.
Some notable vlogs were his song covers of Iñigo Pascual’s Dahil Sayo, Daniel Padilla’s Simpleng Tulad Mo, Juan Karlos’ Buwan, Maja Salvador’s Dahan Dahan, and Ex Battallion’s Hayaan Mo Sila which was featured in Rated K.
Other notable vlogs are his auditions to PBB Otso in Araneta Cubao and Cebu.
When the channel started, Japanese was the primary language used in his videos. English subtitles were added since most of his subscribers were Filipinos. After his stint in PBB, he shifted to a mixture of English and Tagalog. Subtitles were no longer added.
This posed a problem for his growing fanbase. With the growing demand from Japanese subscribers, he established the Hiragana FumiShun Base (ふみしゅんべーす) YouTube Channel on April 13, 2020. This channel uses pure Japanese.
The main concept of the main FumiShun Base Channel's content is his exploration of the Filipino culture. When he started being active as an actor, his content shifted to his daily life as a celebrity. The dynamics of the channel shifted and the original flavor was lost. To better categorize his content, he established Fumi (later on renamed Fumi Vlogs / ふみ) on May 17, 2020. On May 25, a week after the launch, the channel has reached 10,000 subscribers.
This channel features a more personal content, leaving his main channel to focus on his exploration to the Filipino culture.