[4] Uchida was born in the Imperial Valley town of Calexico, California, to Japanese immigrants who worked as farm laborers.

[7] Uchida studied biology at San Jose State, and in 1940 was made the student-coach of the Physical Education Department's judo program.

[11][12] From 1960 to 1961, Uchida served as president of the Judo Black Belt Federation of America, which under his leadership started a pilot program for a national ranking system.

[9] The team included two of Uchida's students from San Jose State, Ben Nighthorse Campbell and Paul Maruyama.

[5] For his contributions to judo, Uchida was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure with Golden Rays in 1986 by Emperor Hirohito of Japan.

[22][23] Additionally, the physical education building on campus that houses the judo dojo was renamed "Yoshihiro Uchida Hall" in 1997.