Ueda and the Women Who Howl at Night
上田と女が吠える夜
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A room of women say what they never say to men, with one man listening.
Ueda and the Women Who Howl at Night is a talk-variety show on Nippon TV, broadcast weekly on Wednesdays at nine since 6 April 2022 and named for its host, the comedian Shinya Ueda of the duo Cream Stew. It grew out of a segment called 'Women Who Dislike Women' on another Nippon TV show, then became a run of specials from December 2017 titled 'The Night Women Get Angry at Women', built on the premise that a woman is a creature who cannot forgive other women. The specials took the present name in October 2021.
Each week a panel of women from television, comedy, sport and music takes on a theme, most often a type of person: the tactless, the woman who cannot say no, the woman who has been through hell, the one who lives for her idol. They say what they think, story by story, while Ueda steers the talk and cuts in with retorts. Two or three of the five regulars, Kayoko Okubo, Asako Ito, MEGUMI, Chinatsu Wakatsuki and First Summer Uika, appear in each episode, Okubo most often. A male guest, often an actor or idol with a new drama or film to promote, sits in as the 'witness' who hears it all.
The show has grown specials on New Year's Day and inside Nippon TV's annual 24-hour telethon. In November 2025 it turned itself around for one night: in 'Okubo and the Men Who Howl at Night', Okubo took the host's chair, Ueda sat in hers, and men did the talking. The weekly show continues.
Starring
Shinya UedaHost
The comedian from the duo Cream Stew who hosts, steering the women's talk and cutting in with retorts.
Kayoko OkuboPanel
A comedian of the duo Oasiz, the regular who appears most often, and the host of the 2025 gender-reversed special.
Asako ItoPanel
A comedian who joined the panel at the second special in 2018 and is one of the five regulars.
MEGUMIPanel
An actress and producer who was a regular from the first specials; she appears only a few times a year now.
Chinatsu WakatsukiPanel
A variety personality and former gravure model, on the panel since the first special in 2017.
First Summer UikaPanel
A singer and actress who joined the specials in 2019 and became one of the five regulars.
Why it matters
Ueda and the Women Who Howl at Night began from a premise worth a second look: that women cannot forgive other women. It turned a cliché about female rivalry into a format, and then, week by week, into something broader, a studio where women on television say what grates on them about manners, money, love and one another, without softening it. Yet there is always a man in the frame, a male host who steers and a male guest who 'witnesses'. Whether that makes the talk freer, or turns it into a performance staged for him, is the question the show carries every week. Its one-night reversal in 2025, with men doing the talking and a woman in the chair, made the arrangement visible by flipping it.