Masayuki Uemura
Japanese engineer, video game producer, and professor (1943–2021)
Masayuki Uemura (上村雅之, Uemura Masayuki; 20 June 1943 – 6 December 2021) was a Japanese engineer, video game producer, and professor. He was known for his work as an employee of Nintendo from 1971 to 2004, most notably for serving as a key factor in the development of the Family Computer.
A former employee of Sharp Corporation, Uemura joined Nintendo in 1971 working with Gunpei Yokoi and Genyo Takeda on solar cell technology for the Laser Clay Shooting System arcade game. After becoming General Manager of Nintendo R&D2, Uemura served as the lead architect for the Family Computer and Super Famicom video game consoles. He retired from Nintendo in 2004 and became director for the Center for Game Studies at Ritsumeikan University.
Education
Uemura graduated from the Chiba Institute of Technology with a degree in electronic engineering. He wrote in his autobiography that he very much enjoyed his learning years.
Career
Uemura originally worked at Sharp Corporation after graduating from college, selling solar cell batteries. He sold photocell technology to several companies, including Nintendo, who used it for a light gun product, called a "ray gun". Gunpei Yokoi, Nintendo's main toy designer at the time, discussed with him the possibility of using Sharp's solar cells on interesting products, using their light-detecting capabilities for a shooting game.
The public source identifies “Masayuki Uemura” as japanese engineer, video game producer, and professor (1943–2021). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Masayuki, Uemura and Japanese.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Masayuki Uemura”, the useful work is to connect “japanese engineer, video game producer, and professor (1943–2021)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q587416. VIAF identifies the subject as 305130731. The Library of Congress control number is no2014036491. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1943, 2021, 1971 and 2004.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Masayuki Uemura”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Masayuki Uemura primary sources, Masayuki Uemura archive and Masayuki research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Masayuki Uemura”?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Masayuki Uemura” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.