Ueda Tatsuya

Name: Ueda Tatsuya | 上田竜也
Nicknames: Tat-chan, Uebo, Uebo-hime (Princess Uebo)
Birthday: October 4, 1983
Birthplace: Kanagawa, Japan
Height: 171cm
Weight: 52kg
Blood Type: B
Joined Johnny's Entertainment: June 1998 at the age of 14
Talents: basketball (he said he was very good at it in school), playing the guitar and piano (he learned to play the piano when he was a child, but he now prefers the guitar), speaking English and French (he learned these languages because he was a big fan of Gackt, who also speaks English and French)
Hobbies: basketball, shopping, playing the guitar, boxing
Pets: 2 labrador dogs, Earo and Tia
Favourite colour: black and red
Favourite season: Winter
Favourite flower: rose
Favourite body part: hands
Favourite animal: dolphin
Favourite food: spaghetti, steak, sashimi, Caesar's salad
What he likes to do in his free time: read comics in the bathtub, play basketball and play guitar
Favourite school subject: history
Favourite word: "effort"
Favourite phrase: "Will you marry me?"
Favourite Johnny's Sempai: Domoto Tsuyoshi (KinKi Kids) and Tsubasa Imai (Tackey & Tsubasa)
Ideal type of girl: older, joyful, can cook and clean, is outgoing and has a pretty smile
His long-term ambition: to direct classical music. (His former ambition was to become a teacher, but he decided against it after realising that he might be assigned to an all-girls' school. He says he would be too nervous then. ^-^)

Ueda & Jin: Akanishi Jin (who joined Johnny's Entertainment 6 months after Ueda) thought at first that Ueda was a sempai of the same level as Takizawa Hideaki. They are now said to be close friends.

Ueda & Kame: Kamenashi Kazuya befriended him when KAT-TUN was formed in 2001 and always looks out for him.
They did have one big fight though (before the 2002 Concert), and that's why Ueda cried during that performance. When Kamenashi came back on stage, he hugged Ueda ^^)

Ueda & Nishikido Ryo: Nishikido Ryo (from other Johnny's groups NewS and Kanjani8) is sometimes cruel to him. After Kamenashi asked Ryo not to question Ueda about him ambitions, because Ueda gets upset about it because he isn't sure about them yet, Ryo publicly questioned him again.
Then, somewhere in 2005, Ryo announced that he hates Ueda most of all the Johnny's members.
Recently however, it has come to light that this rivalry was actually started by Shounen Club (a JE variety show). Despite the fact that the rivalrt was mostly scripted, Ryo (famous for his sharp tongue) has admitted that he might have taken the incident too far by not thinking properly before speaking.

The rivalry between Ryo and Ueda all started in an episode of Johnny's variety show "Shounen Club", when Ryo asked Ueda publicly "What are you trying to be, Ueda?".
Some time later, he explained this question in an interview, saying that Ueda always wore spikes and chains and bleached his hair blonde as if he was trying too hard to be someone else. This question was meant to bring Ueda down in front of everyone.

In that same interview, Kame was with Ryo, and told him that he didn't want Ryo to say things like that to Ueda, because he's a fragile boy and it hurts his feelings, especially since Ueda didn't know back then what he wanted to become, or the image he wanted to have. But even after Kame said that to him, Nishikido continued to target Ueda with cruel comments and questions.

In 2005, during a NewS interview for a magazine, he was asked which Jr he disliked the most. He literally said "I hate Ueda."

This rivalry continued for a while (although Ueda never said or did anything mean back to him), until they both came onto a Shounen Club "Letter Corner" to address each other in front of everyone. Nishikido said in his speech that he's sorry his "poison tongue sometimes hurts Ueda's weak and fragile heart" (this is probably meant in a sarcastic way). That was their public "make-up" scene, but it seems that it didn't improve the situation much.
(Source: I-see-Ueda)

Ueda & Gackt: Ueda used to be a big fan of Gackt (he even wore blue contact lenses and dyed his hair blonde to look like him). When J-rock star Gackt found out that Ueda was a big fan of him, he gave him his necklace. Ueda used to wear it often (as can be seen on numerous photos).

Other facts about Ueda:

• When he was little, he witnessed a man being killed.
• He went to an all-boys' school.
• Ueda writes a lot of KAT-TUN's songs, often under several pen names.
• He joined Johnny's Entertainment because of his admiration for Tsubasa Imai.
• He's a sensitive person, and therefore is easily hurt by what others say about him.
• He was once talent-scouted by another talent agency.
• He wants to name his future daughter "Elizabeth", but because Japanese people will have difficulties pronouncing the name, he'd shorten it to "Eri/Eli".
• He used to wear blue contact lenses (just like Gackt).

Famous quotes:

• "I see fairies." (his most famous quote; KAT-TUN was really nervous when they were about to do their first concert. One by one the members all said: "Good luck! Let's do our best!" When it was Ueda's turn, he just said: "I see Fairies." (because the fans all had little lights, and it was very dark so it looked like fairies ^^)
• "I hate stupid girls."
• "I wish I can have a hot and serious relationship."
• "My ambition is to become popular with the girls of the entire nation. I'll attain it by the time I'm 24."
• "With different people I'm with, I change into one of the many me's and use that."
• "I'm a guy who likes to look cool whatever he does."