Named in honor of Takeshi Urata (1947– ), one of the most active amateur astronomers in Japan and the director of the minor planet section of the Oriental Astronomical Association. Well known for both his astrometric observations and his orbital computations for both comets and minor planets, he pioneered the contributions by Japanese amateur astronomers in both the discovery and the identification of minor planets. His discovery of (2090) Mizuho in 1978 was the first to be made of a minor planet by an amateur astronomer anywhere in more than half a century. He also discovered periodic comet Urata-Niijima in 1986. Details of his work are included in the Nihondaira Observatory Circular, of which some 1700 issues have appeared since he established this publication in 1967. He is also an editor of the Japanese Ephemerides of Minor Planets. (M 16591) _ _.