GAEA JAPAN
After parting ways with AJW, Tamura affiliated herself with Kyoko Inoue, who had purchased a dojo and was planning to start her own promotion. However, the promotion, NEO Japan Ladies Pro Wrestling, would not start running regular shows until over two years later. Meanwhile, Tamura made appearances for several independent promotions, including Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW), Hyper Visual Fighting Arsion and Oz Academy. On July 19, 1997, Tamura made a guest appearance for Gaea Japan, defeating Toshie Uematsu for the WCW Women's Cruiserweight Championship, a title also recognized by American promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Tamura would hold the title for two months, before losing it to Sugar Sato on September 20, in her second Gaea Japan appearance.