Masashi Ueda (植田 まさし, Ueda Masashi, born 1947) is a manga artist who wrote Kobo, the Li'l Rascal, a four-panel comic that has headlined Daily Yomiuri since 1982 and has amassed over 10,000 strips and 60 compilation volumes, as well as inspiring an anime adaptation.
[2] Ueda began drawing comic book strips when he worked in his brother's cram school.
Ueda began producing Furiten-kun, a comic book strip about a mahjong player, in 1979.
In 1988, as part of the United Nations International Literacy Year he visited Nepal as a special commissioner.
In 1999 the Japan Comic Artists Association awarded Ueda a prize.