Early career Born in
Ichihara, Chiba, Aoyama first raced in MiniMoto at the age of 4, racing against
Yuki Takahashi, who he has raced against for most of his career. In 2008 he referred to Takahashi as a "respected rival". Aoyama rode in the
All-Japan Road Racing Championship until 2003, when he won the 250cc championship with
Honda. He also rode a couple of events as wildcard rider in the Grand Prix World Championships, finishing 2nd in the
2003 Japanese Grand Prix at
Suzuka.
125cc, 250cc & MotoGP World Championship , at the
2007 Japanese Grand Prix In
2004, Aoyama joined the 250cc World Championship full-time, still racing for Honda. His debut season gave him two third places and 6th place in the championship. In the following year he scored his maiden victory in his home race at
Motegi and finished the championship in 4th place. However, Aoyama was not able to stay on at Honda, so he moved to
KTM for
2006 season. He brought them victories in
Istanbul and
Motegi, the first two for the manufacturer in the class. For the second year in row, he was 4th in overall standings. Aoyama ended the
2007 season in sixth place in the 250 championship with victories in
Germany and
Malaysia. He remained with KTM for the
2008 season and finished the season in seventh place with two second-place finishes. After KTM's withdrawal from 250cc class, Aoyama returned to Honda with
Team Scot replacing his rival
Yuki Takahashi who briefly moved up to MotoGP class. The
2009 season went well as he scored 4 wins, 3 second places and finished every other race in the points. At last race of the season Aoyama became the
world champion. Aoyama stepped up to MotoGP in
2010 on board the Emmi-Caffè Latte Team Honda RC212V. In initial testing the team (which is itself new to MotoGP) opted not to use the electronic rider aids, despite the bikes being designed around them. The team's technical director Tom Jojic explained that he wanted Aoyama to experience the bike's true nature, and believes that he is good enough to be competitive on it. His season was wrecked by a fractured vertebra sustained in a practice crash at Silverstone, eliminating him for much of the season. Aoyama was a consistent race finisher in 2011, mainly finishing in the bottom end of the top ten, but finished fourth in the
Spanish Grand Prix. Aoyama also replaced
Dani Pedrosa on the factory-spec Repsol Honda bike for the
Dutch TT in
Assen, after Pedrosa's injury at the
French Grand Prix. Aoyama moved to World Superbikes for the season, joining
Jonathan Rea at
Castrol Honda. ==Career statistics==