When Ueda graduated from university, he joined AUBEC (now defunct) to work in the animation industry.
After working as a production manager and assistant director, he made his directorial debut with Tsuruhime Ja!
Kohanawa said that when Ueda was a rookie director, he would carefully coach him on how to direct.
He also cites Takashi Ikehata, Takeshi Ushigusa, Makoto Sokuza, Yūji Mutō and Shunji Yoshida as his senior directors from his time at AUBEC.
He often gets to work on Studio Deen productions, perhaps due to Studio Deen producer Keiichi Matsuda once being a junior member of AUBEC's production assistant team (he has also long been acquainted with producer Nobumitsu Urasaki of the same company).