Maeda's minor role as a striptease dancer in director Seiichiro Uchikawa's Eikō to Bakusō Ō (栄光と驀走王, 1956) brought her to public attention through her voluptuous figure.

In their The Japanese Film: Art and Industry, Anderson and Richie described Maeda as "a star who consisted almost entirely of mammary glands.

[1] For Shintoho, Maeda appeared in string of female pearl-diver films which exploited similar nude scenes, concluding with Woman Diver's Terror (海女の戦慄, Ama no Senritsu) (1957).

While acting in the film Konpira Riseiken (金比羅利生剣, 1957) for director Goro Katano, Maeda refused to do a scene in which she was to lift her slip for the camera.

The resulting scandal became known as the "Tuck up incident" (裾まくり事件, Suso makuri jiken), and made headlines in international news.