Fumiya Sankai

Fumiya was born on March 19, 1995, in Hamamatsu Shizuoka Japan. He was raised alongside his three siblings: two brothers named Yuya and Shunya,[3] 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 vocational degree in Hotel Management.

He joined the hospitality workforce after his graduation from vocational school and worked in a hotel in Shinjuku 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.

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.[4]

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 but he was able to pass all the screenings and became an official PBB OTSO housemate.[4]

After PBB, he stayed in the Philippines to pursue a career in show-business.

Fumiya established his YouTube channel, FumiShun Base, with his brother Shunya on December 2, 2015, but only posted their first video on 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 the 31st of May 2017. His first video was a reaction video of Sarah Geronimo's Kilometro. From then on, he started gaining Filipino followers.

On April 2018, his channel hit 100K subscribers awarding him with the YouTube Silver play button.[5] On March 7, 2019, he hit the one million subscribers mark, awarding him with a gold play button.[6][7]

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.[8][9]

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 on the 17th of May, 2020.[10] On the 25th of May, a week after the launch, the channel has reached 10,000 subscribers.

This channel will feature a more personal content, leaving his main channel to focus on his exploration to the Filipino culture.

His FumiShun Base channel went back to its original content and the change was felt in the faster rise of subscribers. On the 15th of June, 2020, he hit the 2 million subscribers mark. This was momentous for Fumiya for it is the first time that he was able to celebrate a million subscriber milestone since he was inside the PBB house in his first million.[11]

Fumiya’s dream was to establish his very own clothing line. Most of his business ventures are aligned to this dream.

Fumiya opened the official shop for his YouTube channel on June 22, 2019.[12] The shop features his original designs from when he started his channel. Items were sold out on the first week.

He also did a collaboration with Livertineage Japan. His designs were released for pre-orders on February 7, 2020.[13]

Fumiya opened FumiShun Base Hamamatsu, his first business venture, on February 16, 2020.[14] The establishment is a museum which exhibits Fumiya’s memoirs from his childhood, life as a vlogger, and his life in the Philippines. FumiShun Base merchandise are also being sold.

The earnings of his museum will be used for charity.[15]

On the 29th of February, 2020, as an adherence to government policies for the prevention of the spread of the COVID19 pandemic, the museum was temporarily closed until further notice.[16][17][18][19]

Fumiya was already known as a creator but his fame rose when he became an official housemate of PBB Otso. He has since been added as a regular cast in a sitcom, Home Sweetie Home: Extra Sweet,[20] and a prime time romantic comedy TV Series, Make It With You.[21]

He has also appeared in several TV and digital programs under ABS-CBN such as Umagang Kay Ganda, It's Showtime and iWant’s Tawa Tawa Together. He has also guested in multiple episodes of ASAP, Magandang Buhay, Rated K, Minute to Win It, Gandang Gabi Vice, and Tonight with Boy Abunda. He was also the MYX' Celebrity VJ for December 2019.

On April 2020, his first show as a host, Highway Harvest, became available through TFC Online.

He has also released several singles under Star Music. Stay With Me this Christmas was at the top spot of the charts on the Christmas week of 2019.

Fumiya held his first major concert (Fumiya Amazing ‘Di Ba?) at the Music Museum last November 15, 2019.[22] His guests included the rest of Team LAYF, Jeremy Glinoga, MNL48, AC Bonifacio and Alex Gonzaga.[23][24]

Simultaneous to his activities in the Philippines, he has also started being active with his PR in Japan. He has been featured in several newspapers and has appeared in several TV shows in Japan:

• Ohayou Shizuoka – NHK Shizuoka, January 29, 2020
• Ohayou Nippon – NHK Japan, February 6, 2020
• Tadaima TV – TV Shizuoka, February 17, 2020

He has also released several singles under Universal Music Japan. Sige Sige Bahala Na peaked at #4 in iTunes Philippines (#1 under the JPop category) and #97 in iTunes Singapore when it was released (digital platforms) on August 28, 2019.