decided she too "wanted to appear on TV." Unbeknownst to her daughter, Ueto's mother entered her into the 7th Japan Bishōjo Contest. When she was twelve years old, Ueto won the special jury prize at the contest. She revealed later on that her real motivation for doing well was to "win the two million yen cash prize to buy a house for her family," however because what she won was an ad hoc prize decided that day, there was no monetary reward. After Ueto's discovery, she joined the talent agency Oscar Promotion and began acting and singing lessons. In July 1998, Ueto joined the idol group Z-1. The group landed a regular spot on the variety shows Kaishingeki TV! Utaemon and The Yoru mo Hippare, and debuted on Toshiba EMI a year later with the single "Vibe!" In 1999, Ueto obtained her first role in the film Satsujinsha: Killer of Paraiso, in which her lines were entirely in English. 2000–2005: Breakthrough and solo debut In 2000, Ueto portrayed the supporting role of Momo Fuchigami in the Fuji TV drama Namida o Fuite, starring Yōsuke Eguchi. The drama garnered strong ratings and gave Ueto her biggest exposure yet. In 2001, Ueto appeared on the annual Victor Kōshien poster, which, in the past, kick-started the careers of Noriko Sakai and Miho Kanno. Later that year, she was cast in the role of Nao Tsurumoto, a student suffering from gender identity disorder (GID), in the sixth season of the TBS drama 3-nen B-gumi Kinpachi-sensei. The role propelled her to stardom and earned her a Golden Arrow Award for Best Newcomer. In January 2002, it was announced that Ueto would continue her music career as a solo artist under Pony Canyon subsidiary label, Flight Master. During her summer break from school, she appeared in a 5-episode arc of the long-running drama Wataru Seken wa Oni Bakari, and starred alongside Akiko Yada and Hiroshi Abe in the TBS drama My Little Chef. Ueto released her first solo single, "Pureness," in August 2002. The song debuted at number 4 on the Oricon Weekly Singles chart, making it the first debut single by a female artist with no commercial tie-in to enter the top five in three years. In between filming her first feature film, Azumi, Ueto released her second single, "Kizuna," and launched Seventeen's Map, a radio show on Nippon Hōsō. The program would go on