Reiko Uehara is a Japanese gospel singer born in Okinawa. Adopted at four months old by the Uehara family, she learned early on about her painful story and spent years searching for her place. She became a Christian in 1970, founded the Abba Music Ministries ministry in 1990, and has been singing ever since in churches, schools, and prisons across Japan.
Reiko Uehara was born in Okinawa to an American father she never knew and a Japanese mother. Adopted at four months old by the Uehara family, she learned the circumstances of her birth at age five and went through a long period of loneliness and discrimination. As a teenager, she searched for her place through singing: at seventeen, she left for Tokyo and passed an audition with the Teichiku Records label, but returned to Okinawa just before her debut, overwhelmed by a sense of inner emptiness.
Back home, she went to a church attended by a former teacher from her Christian school in Okinawa. There, she found in the love of Jesus Christ an answer to that emptiness and became a Christian in 1970. She then began a career as a gospel singer with original compositions, performing in juvenile detention centers, prisons, schools, and churches in Japan and abroad. In 1990, she founded the Abba Music Ministries ministry, which she still leads today, and has appeared on several programs on the NHK public broadcaster.
- Origin
- Okinawa, Japan
- Style
- Christian gospel, testimony songs
- Active since
- 1970 (conversion), Abba Music Ministries founded in 1990
- Good to know
- Her videos often combine a conversation with a guest and a song sung at the close
How did Reiko Uehara get started?
Born to an unknown American father and adopted as a baby, Reiko Uehara grew up with a wound of identity that pushed her toward singing as an outlet from an early age. Her attempt to launch a career in secular music with Teichiku Records at seventeen came to an abrupt stop: back in Okinawa, she felt that the success she had hoped for would not fill her inner emptiness.
It was by walking through the door of a church, following in the footsteps of a former teacher, that she found an answer to this search. Her conversion in 1970 marked the true beginning of her calling: to sing, no longer to make a name for herself, but to tell what she had received.
What makes Reiko Uehara distinctive?
Her journey as an adopted mixed race child, marked by rejection and then restored through her faith, shapes her entire ministry. Many of her videos take the form of a conversation with a pastor, a musician, or a loved one, before closing with a song that sums up the message. This way of pairing spoken testimony with song is her hallmark, as is her decades long work with audiences often overlooked by Christian concerts: inmates, young people in detention centers, hospital patients.
Where should you start with Reiko Uehara?
The song "主よ、だれよりも" (Lord, More Than Anyone) gives you a great sense of her classic Japanese gospel style. "私の原点" (My Starting Point), subtitled Look in the Sky, revisits the roots of her calling. The track "友よあなたに" (To You, My Friend), her very first song, composed in 1974, remains a natural entry point into her discography.
songs
主よ、だれよりも
A classic worship song in which she declares that nothing matters more than the Lord, tagged with gospel on her channel.
私の原点 (Look in the Sky)
A song that revisits the starting point of her calling, between childhood wounds and rediscovered trust.
友よあなたに
Her first composed song, released in 1974, presented here alongside the testimony of her longtime pianist.
Discography
- 2006愛されて (Aisarete)· Remastered reissue of an album originally released in 1980
- 1974友よあなたに· First original album
- 何という愛でしょう
Read also
Frequently asked questions
Who is Reiko Uehara?
Reiko Uehara is a Japanese gospel singer born in Okinawa, adopted as a baby, who became a Christian in 1970. She has led the Abba Music Ministries ministry since 1990 and sings in churches, schools, and prisons across Japan.
Is Reiko Uehara Christian?
Yes. She converted in 1970 after visiting a church in Okinawa, and her entire music career is built around that testimony of faith.
What is Reiko Uehara's best known song?
"友よあなたに", her very first song, released in 1974, remains one of her most recognized tracks, along with "主よ、だれよりも".
Where can you listen to Reiko Uehara?
Her official YouTube channel, Reiko Uehara official channel, brings together most of her songs and filmed testimonies.
Does Reiko Uehara sing in Japanese?
Yes, her entire repertoire is in Japanese, the language of her main audience in Japan and among the Japanese diaspora.
Why does Reiko Uehara sing gospel?
After a youth marked by rejection tied to her mixed heritage, she found in her conversion a peace she has been telling through song for more than fifty years.