Born in Tokyo, Inoue, a right-handed baseline player, started tennis aged nine and was coached by her father Gou.

She had her best year as a junior in 1995 when she was a girls' singles quarter-finalist at the Australian Open and semi-finalist at the Wimbledon Championships.

She qualified for her first Grand Slam tournament at the 1997 Wimbledon Championships and was beaten by seventh seed Anke Huber in the first round.

Her highlights in 1998 include reaching the quarterfinals of the ENKA Open in Istanbul as well as main draw appearances in three of the four Grand Slam tournaments.

[3] She never represented Japan in Fed Cup but was a member of the bronze medal winning women's team at the 1998 Asian Games.