~*Takako Uehara*~

Takako Uehara (born January 14, 1983) was a member of the JPop group, SPEED, which disbanded in 2000. She was born in Okinawa, Japan.
Takako is often typecast as the prettiest member of SPEED and ranks among the 'exceptional' female beauties of Japan. Her highly anticipated first solo single 'My First Love' was release in January 1999, and was produced by legendary Jpop superstar Ryuichi Kawamura (of Luna Sea). My First Love was the beginning of a prosperous collaboration between Takako and Mr. Kawamura. The single itself was very successful and topped the charts selling over 500,000 copies. The promotional video along with the cover and leaflet photos for 'My First Love' were all shot on location in Hawaii. Takako followed up with her sophomore and third singles, 'Come Close to Me' and 'My Greatest Memories'. In July 2000 following the disbandment of SPEED, she became the first member of the group to release a solo album: My First Wing.
After SPEED, Takako continued with a moderately successful solo career as well as acting in various TV dramas. Takako is also a highly sought after model endorsing many famous brands such as Shiseido, Dunlop Tyres, NTT DoCoMo, FujiFilm FinePix Camera, SAGAWA, FamilyMart, KC Card, Meiji Chocolate, NEC FOMA and other food & beverages. Her most popular campaign was when she teamed up with Vivian Hsu to promote Shiseido's 'Proudia' range of products aimed at the more youthful market.
Takako has also been a favorite pinup model among teenage men. She has released three photobooks. The first being '17' which was released in the year 2000. Her second photobook was Vingt Takako (Vingt means 20 in French). Vingt Takako was extremely controversial as the book contained many semi-nude and erotic shots of Takako - some containing rather explicit poses. This book upset and surprised many of her loyal fans as she has often came across as being really innocent. However, Takako herself assured that the photos were tastefully done and shot on location in France by an all female crew. Takako's third photobook Veintitres (meaning 23 in Spanish) was of similar nature to Vingt Takako but contained less daring photos of her. Veintitres was shot on location in Mexico, this time with a mixed crew. The photobook contained a bonus 'making of DVD'. Takako's has a special preference for her photo's to be taken with minimal make-up and cpu touch-up/alterations. In essence her pictures tend contain a rather ambivalent tone to them in which she tends to come across rather natural/pale looking.