Junko Ueda (Japanese: 上田純子; born in Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese singer and satsuma-biwa player, presenting Japanese traditional biwa music (story-telling) and shômyô Buddhist chanting. Also, she is specialized to perform the pieces of Japanese composer Tōru Takemitsu (武満徹). Ueda studied satsuma-biwa with the famous Kinshi Tsuruta and Buddhist shômyô-chanting with Kôshin Ebihara. She studied piano and composition (under a.o. Joji Yuasa) at the Tokyo College of Music. Since 1988, Ueda has based in Europe (Amsterdam, Holland and Granada, Spain) and has been giving biwa/voice solo concert and shômyô (Japanese Buddhist chanting) vocal workshop in numerous situations and at music festivals. Her traditional biwa CDs "Heike Monogatari" (CD650 VDE/AIMP Geneva) and "Satsuma Biwa" (ARN64577 Arion, Paris / Ethnomad, Geneva) received several prizes e.g. the Grand Prix du Disque, Academie Charles Cros, Paris and Choc Le Monde de la Musique, Paris. Contributing for new compositions, Junko Ueda has been working with composers, e.g. Jean-Claude Eloy, Qu Xiaosong, Akemi Naito, Keiko Harada and performing with e.g. cellist Yo Yo Ma and Dutch Nieuw Ensemble. Since 1988 she has been presenting a duo performance with Dutch flutist Wil Offermans. This duo has recorded the CD "How to Survive in Paradise" (CD732 VDE-Gallo Swiss) and has been touring world-wide (Europe, Asia, North and South America), performing own compositions and improvisations. She has been active as a producer for several inter