Umeda Haruo, born Umeda Akira (梅田晃) in 1920 in Tokyo's Yotsuya district, was a Japanese scholar, playwright, novelist, and essayist specializing in French literature. He graduated from Keio University Graduate School and was involved in writing scripts for stage plays and radio dramas, as well as translating works on the history of objects.

Umeda was the youngest of six siblings. His father, Umeda Kiyoshi, managed a Russian trade company, and his mother, Reiko, was a literary scholar. Influenced by a European-oriented upbringing, he attended Keio University from elementary through graduate school.

During World War II, Umeda evacuated to Ninomiya, Kanagawa Prefecture. In 1943, he wrote a review on French populist Eugene Labiche for "Mita Bungaku," which was criticized for its communist undertones, leading to a warning from the Ministry of Home Affairs. To mitigate this, he quickly submitted an essay on Molière. He married for the first time in the same year.

After completing his graduate studies in 1944, Umeda divorced his first wife and remarried Ishii Kimi. He worked briefly at Chuo Koron Publishing Company, ran a lending library in Chayamachi, Kanagawa, and became a lecturer at Keio Bunka Gakuin in 1948, where he began writing novels and translating French plays.

Umeda made his playwright debut in 1949 with "A Windless Night" and co-founded the "Art Association" in 1951 to support theater talent. His wife Kimi died of tuberculosis in 1955, prompting him to move to Shibuya, Tokyo. He married film actress Banri Yoko in 1959. With the birth of his first son, Nozomu, he shifted from playwriting to work in advertising. He joined Hakuhodo as a director in 1960 and later became an executive director at the Japan Radio Writers Association.

In 1965, Umeda established the "Zatsugaku-no-Kai" to collect various trivia and wrote extensively on customs and trends. From 1970, he focused on the history of collectibles, such as fountain pens and watches, and translated foreign literature. He founded the Antiques Company in 1975 and launched the magazine "Antique Information."

Umeda was hospitalized in August 1980 and died from lung cancer on December 21, 1980, at the age of 61.

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