She participated at the 2018 World Judo Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan and won her first world title at 18 years of age, making her the third-youngest Judoka to ever capture a senior World title. Abe firstly defeated Polish judoka, Karolina Pienkowska and Fabienne Kocher of Switzerland. She then defeated Jessica Pereira of Brazil and in the semi-finals she defeated Amandine Buchard of France in under 40 seconds, by armlock to make her way into the finals. In the finals, Abe was matched with teammate and former-world champion Ai Shishime, and defeated Shishime with a spectacular uchi-mata in golden score for ippon.