Masashi Ueda is a Japanese manga artist born in 1947 in Tokyo, whose birth name is Masamichi Uematsu. He emerged as a prominent figure in the world of four-panel comics, known as yonkoma, beginning his professional career in 1971. Before becoming a manga creator, Ueda studied literature at Chuo University while also attending a photography school at night, initially aspiring to be a photojournalist. However, he turned his focus to manga while working at his brother’s cram school, where he began developing his signature style of short, humorous strips.

Ueda is best known as the original creator of several long-running manga series that have become cultural staples in Japan. One of his earliest major works is Furiten-kun, a series about a hapless mahjong player, which began serialization in 1979 and spawned multiple sequels and spin-offs. The series was adapted into an anime film in 1981. Another significant work is Kariage-kun, also known in some regions as The Smart Guy, a long-running series centered on a mischievous office worker. Perhaps his most famous creation is Kobo, the Li'l Rascal (Kobo-chan), a beloved four-panel comic about a young boy and his family. Kobo-chan began serialization in the Daily Yomiuri newspaper in 1982 and has continued for decades, accumulating over 10,000 individual strips and inspiring its own anime adaptation.

Throughout his extensive career, Ueda has demonstrated a consistent artistic identity focused on the four-panel format, using it to explore the humor and foibles of everyday Japanese life. His works frequently center on ordinary characters such as salarymen, students, and family members, finding comedy in relatable situations, social quirks, and simple misunderstandings. This focus on the mundane, delivered with a clean and accessible drawing style, has made his series both critically acclaimed and commercially successful. For instance, the initial seven volumes of Furiten-kun reportedly sold over four million copies.

Ueda's significance in the manga industry is underscored by numerous accolades and his role as a representative of the yonkoma genre. In 1982, he received the prestigious Bungeishunjū Manga Award for his work on Furiten-kun, Kariage-kun, and Masashi-kun. He was later awarded a prize by the Japan Cartoonists Association in 1999 for Kobo-chan and Otoboke Kachō, and in 2016, he received the Grand Prize from the same association for Kariage-kun. Beyond his creative work, Ueda served as a special commissioner for the United Nations in Nepal in 1988 as part of International Literacy Year.