[2] Born in Nakagawa-cho, Fukuoka Prefecture, Umeno started playing baseball when he was in 2nd grade, mainly due to the influence of his father who was coaching the town's little league team.

He was a year ahead of Masahiro Nakatani, another Hanshin player drafted straight from high school, and who also converted from an outfielder to a catcher.

[7] Umeno was supposed to be included in the 2009 amateur draft but, thinking he might not yet be able to handle the strain from professional matches, he decided to attend Fukuoka University instead.

[13] He debuted as a pinch hitter in the March 28 season opener with the Yomiuri Giants in Tokyo Dome, and remained as a catcher until the end of the game.

The previous Tiger rookie catcher to score during the season's opening card was Kōichi Tabuchi, 45 years prior in 1969.

[14][15][16] Umeno first appeared as a starter in an April 20 match with the Swallows, the first time that a Hanshin rookie catcher did so since Ryo Asai 12 years prior.

He again made Hanshin history on July 1 when he hit 2 consecutive home runs, the 3rd rookie to do so since Akinobu Okada in 1980, and just the 2nd catcher since Tabuchi in 1969.

[20] The strain from his continued appearances finally caught up with Umeno however, making him lose considerable weight (10 kilos) and causing a slump towards the end of the season.

[13] Defense-wise, he boasted a 99.5 fielding percentage and he was the only catcher in both leagues to never be charged with a passed ball,[22][23] a feat never before accomplished in the past 35 years of the NPB.

[28] He managed to get back to the main squad in August, but given the competition with veteran catchers Fujii and Tsuruoka, he got hardly any play time during the remainder of the season.

[29] Because his performance for the regular season was below par, he received a 3 million yen pay cut during the November salary negotiations.

2017 With Haraguchi being groomed more towards first base and Sakamoto suffering from an injury, Umeno finally became the team's main catcher for majority of the season's games.

In the May 6 match with the Carps, he batted in 3 runs and played a big part in biggest come-from-behind win in team history where the Tigers made up for a 9-run deficit in just 2 innings.

Despite having a rocky start early in the season (.217 average until June),[35] his hitting picked up in July and by August, he batted 0.338 and racked up 10 RBIs with 4 home runs in 23 games.

What he lacked in offense, he made up for in defense and in base stealing where he managed to record 10 successful attempts by August 17 (a feat last accomplished by a Hanshin catcher Keisuke Kanoh in 2009).

[49] Hanshin import Randy Messenger, who teamed up with Umeno in most of his starts, praised the rookie's ability to catch even his most difficult pitches.