[1] She thereafter worked as a judge for other district courts until entering private practice in 1993.
[2] On April 12, 2010, Okabe was appointed as a justice of the Supreme Court of Japan.
Prior to her most recent judgeship, she worked as a law professor at Toyo University.
[3][4] Okabe retired on March 19, 2019 (the day before her seventieth birthday).
This is because the Supreme Court of Japan has a mandatory retirement age of 70.