Her running professional career began in earnest in her mid-twenties. She ranked in the top ten at the Gold Coast Half Marathon in 1991 and 1992. The 1993 season marked a breakthrough, as she took fourth at the high profile Osaka Women's Marathon with a personal best of 2:30:02 hours before winning the Hokkaido Marathon. She returned an improved runner to Osaka the next year and knocked nearly four minutes from her best with a time of 2:26:09 to place second behind Tomoe Abe. She was chosen for two international teams that year, first at the 1994 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, where she placed in the top 100 in the women's race, and then in the marathon at the 1994 Asian Games, where she claimed the bronze medal behind Chinese opposition.