‘Lady Beast’ fights the good fight for women gamers in Japan

Yuko Momochi, the country’s first woman professional gamer, is looking for female talent who could one day turn pro

In her online world, she is “Lady Beast”, deftly operating her green monster Blanka in dizzying hand-to-hand streetfighting combat on the global professional gaming circuit.

In real life, she is Yuko Momochi, a 31-year-old slender Japanese woman with short hair dyed light brown, who is hoping to encourage more girls into the male-dominated world of professional gaming.

A former car saleswoman, Ms. Momochi got her break in competitive gaming in 2011 after she defeated a previously invincible character in a Street Fighter match, earning her a sponsorship offer from an American team.

Hosting events

She was Japan’s first woman professional gamer and now also spends her time hosting events and searching for female talent who could one day turn pro.

“My parents wanted me to be a civil servant,” she laughs at an interview on the sidelines of the Tokyo Game Show, one of the world’s largest. “A girl raised by steady parents has turned out like this!”

Visitors to the Tokyo Game Show are left in little doubt they are entering a male-dominated world.

Only a handful of female players are in evidence in the loud atmosphere and scantily-clad women in exhibition halls greet the 250,000 mostly male visitors expected to attend the fair. The violent world of online gaming also tends to appeal more to men, Ms. Momochi said.

“When I started going to game arcades, I was playing fighting games, which meant it’s all men around you. It was tough to get in there alone,” she recalled.

Started young

Ms. Momochi started gaming at a young age, playing Donkey Kong and other video games with her brother. She recalled how her mother would unplug the computer after a few hours.

Up until recently, her parents disapproved of her career, only softening their opposition slightly in recent years.

Ms. Momochi has tasted some success in the competitive world of gaming.

She won second place in a Singapore competition in 2011 and got into the top eight at a Tokyo Game Show event in 2013.

And now she has launched a group — “Project Gaming Girls” or P2G — to encourage women and girl players, whether professional or amateur.

“I want to share the joy you can get from gaming. Gaming itself was fun but socialising with my opponent after the fight was also fun,” she said.