Tsuda College
After graduation she returned to Japan, teaching at Tsuda Ume's girls' school "Joshi Eigaku Juku" (Women’s English School), which would later become Tsuda College. There she taught English, translation, and history. She also became one of the founding members of the Japanese YWCA along with Caroline Macdonald, who had arrived in Japan in 1905. Kawai would become the first National Secretary (a position also referred to as the General Secretary), of the Japanese YWCA in 1912, a position she would hold until 1926.