[4] Kawabe then switched to her former coaches, Mie Hamada, Yamato Tamura, Haruko Okamoto, and Cathy Reed, and moved to train with them in Takatsuki.

On the advanced novice level internationally, she is the 2017 Coupe du Printemps and 2017 Asian Open Trophy champion.

[7] At the 2019–20 Japan Junior Championships, Kawabe led Tomoe Kawabata and Rino Matsuike in the short program by over a point.

"[9] At the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics in January, Kawabe set personal bests in all segments to finish fourth overall behind You Young of South Korea and Russians Kseniia Sinitsyna and Anna Frolova.

[12] She was assigned to make her senior international debut at the 2020 NHK Trophy, in a Grand Prix field that, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was attended primarily by Japanese skaters.

[15] Initially, without any Grand Prix assignments, Kawabe was named as a replacement skater at the 2021 Skate Canada International following the withdrawal of Alexia Paganini.

She landed a triple Axel in the free skate, albeit deemed a quarter short of rotation by the technical panel, obtaining a new personal best in that segment and in total score.

Second in the short program with a landed triple Axel, she was fourth in the free skate but remained in second place overall and took the silver medal.

[19] In the 2022 Winter Olympics women's event short program, Kawabe fell on her triple Axel attempt, scoring 62.69 and placing fifteenth in the segment.

[23] At her second event, the 2022 Grand Prix of Espoo, Kawabe was again third in the short program despite a slight under rotation on her triple flip.

[27] Two months later, she won the bronze medal at the International Challenge Cup, joining Kaori Sakamoto and Mai Mihara in a Japanese sweep of the podium, and finishing second in the free skate after a disappointing ninth in the short program.