[10] After completing her formal education in Japan, Fukuda visited the United States to teach in the 1950s and 1960s, and eventually settled there.

[1] As a youth, she learned the arts of calligraphy, flower arrangement, and the tea ceremony; typical pursuits for a woman in Japan at that time.

[15] Kanō had taught female students as early as 1893 (Sueko Ashiya) and had formally opened the joshi-bu (women's section) of the Kodokan in 1926.

[15] In 1966, she demonstrated her art at Mills College, and the institution immediately offered her a teaching position; she accepted, and taught there from 1967 to 1978.

[1][12][17][19] During this time, Fukuda lived at the Noe Valley home of one of her students, Shelley Fernandez, and taught judo there in addition to her teaching at the college.

[22] Fukuda served as a technical adviser for US Women's Judo and the USJI Kata Judges' Certification Sub-committee.

[6] In 1994, she was the first woman to be awarded a rare red belt (at the time for women still marking the 8th dan rank) in judo by the Kodokan.

[1][3] In 2006 the Kodokan awarded Fukuda the 9th degree black belt (9th dan), making her the first woman to hold this rank from any recognized judo organization.

She established the Keiko Fukuda Judo Scholarship to encourage and enable women to continue their formal training in the art.

[13] Fukuda's personal motto was: "Tsuyoku, Yasashiku, Utsukushiku" (in English: "Be strong, be gentle, be beautiful, in mind, body, and spirit").