A Family Affair: Abe Uta Aims to Match Her Brother with Jūdō Wins

Teenage Jūdō Star

Born in Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Abe Uta grew up watching her older siblings, including her older brother Hifumi, practicing jūdō. She took it up herself when she was still in kindergarten.

As an elementary school pupil, Abe was already showing signs of talent in the sport. However, her performance was not remarkable in the tournaments she participated in during those years. It was when she entered junior high school that Abe made her breakthrough. She began to apply herself to practicing, something she had once abhorred, and she found a mentor who guided her rapid development to the point where she won the national junior high school tournament.

Once ignited, her momentum was unstoppable. As a tenth grader, Abe became the youngest, at age 16, to win the International Judo Federation Grand Prix held in Dusseldorf, and in 2018, when she was a high school senior, she won the World Championships, repeating the feat the following year. By this time she had become the undisputed queen of her weight class in international jūdō.

A Formidable Opponent

There is no denying Abe’s strength in global competition. Since winning her first international match while she was still in junior high, Abe has accumulated 59 wins and only 1 loss, a clear testimony of her formidable power.

“I find foreign adversaries easier to throw,” she says without hesitation.

Abe excels in throwing her opponents. She also has a tenacious hikite (pulling hand) and will not let go easily once she gets a grip on her opponent’s uniform. These strong techniques have won her numerous ippon decisions.

Her aggressive style is backed up by a strong will to win that she does not hesitate to express in words. For example, after winning in her weight division in the Grand Slam Tokyo 2017, Abe said, “I think everyone knows now that Abe Uta has arrived.”

She also commented, “I want to keep the Abe Uta era going through 2020.”

Over the three and a half years since then, she has done exactly what she said she would do and has won the two international competitions she entered this year.

A Happy Family

Her long-awaited goal for the Tokyo Olympics is to win together with her brother, a figure she greatly respects.

“I want to achieve what my brother and I set out to do together,” she says.

Because of her young age, Abe will have ample opportunities to win in future Olympics, and she is often asked in media interviews about her aspirations. The expected answer, of course, is that she is aiming for a string of gold medals, but contrary to this expectation, her response is: “I want to have a happy family.”

She speaks these words shyly, in stark contrast to the aggressive confidence she shows on the mats. In this she shows another aspect of her personality that endears her to her fans.

(Originally published in Japanese. Banner photo: On her way to winning her second World Jūdō Championship, Abe Uta defeats Rio Olympics gold medalist Majlinda Kelmendi [left] in the semifinals at the Nippon Budōkan in Tokyo on August 26, 2019. © Jiji.)