Born in Manhattan, New York City, United States to Japanese parents, she moved to Kyoto at age 3.
She made her television debut in 1975 in the NHK show Maboroshi no Pen Friend, and in that year also appeared in Ai to Makoto on TV Tokyo.
In Taiga drama series, Kimiko portrayed Ōhime Kusa Moeru (1979) Chacha (later named Yodo-Dono) in the 1981 Onna Taikō-ki, Lady Tsukiyama (the wife of the title character) in Tokugawa Ieyasu (1983), and Eri (Lady Aburakawa, concubine of the title character) in Takeda Shingen.
Other jidaigeki roles have included Sumi in the 1988 NHK Miyamoto Musashi Okon in Tōyama no Kin-san (1989), and Nami in the 2003 TV Tokyo Chūshingura: Ketsudan no Toki.
Contemporary roles include the yakuza in Gokudō no Onna-tachi Revenge (the thirteenth in the series) and the female lead in Shiroi Kyotō (TV Asahi, 1990).