Ito started skating at age four at a rink in Nagoya and approached Machiko Yamada, who would become her coach throughout her career, on the same day.

At the 1982 World Junior Championships, Ito won both the short program and free skating, but again weak compulsory figures kept her off the podium, in 6th place overall.

[9] Ito did not compete at the 1983 World Junior event, which took place in December 1982, having broken her ankle earlier that year.

In the fall of 1983, she made her senior international debut at the Ennia Challenge Cup in the Netherlands, a competition that featured the short program and free skating only, without compulsory figures.

[10] At the 1984 World Junior Championships, she won both the short program and free skating but finished third overall due to a low placement in the compulsory figures.

Kestnbaum also states that her technically difficult free skate would have held up well against the most difficult programs performed by female single skaters ten years later, and that as of 2003, "the quality of her jumps (apart from the less-preferred high wrapped position of her free leg while in the air) has never been equaled".

[17] Ito's presentation marks also suffered, despite her "high energy and pleasing cheerfulness", due to her tendency to keep her back and shoulders stiff, which resulted in a lack of fluidity and sublety in her musical expressiveness.

[17] Later that same year, she perfected the triple Axel, which she had been working on since her early teens, and landed it at a regional competition in the Aichi Prefecture.

At the 1990 World Championships, Ito was 10th after the compulsory figures but placed first in both the short program and the free skating and won the silver medal, second to Jill Trenary.

[25] In March, at the 1991 World Championships, Ito collided with France's Laetitia Hubert during a practice session – her hip and the top of her foot were bruised.

[24] In the short program, she placed her jump combination too close to the corner of the rink and fell into the opening in the boards for the television camera but was back on the ice within seconds.

The 1992 Winter Olympics did not include the compulsory figures which caused Ito to lose the World championships the year before even after winning the short program and free skating competitions.

[27] In comparison, Kristi Yamaguchi and Nancy Kerrigan completed their triple Lutz-double toe loop combinations and then placed one and two, respectively.

She competed at the ISU Adult Figure Skating Competition and placed second in her category, Ladies' Masters Elite II.

In 2013, on her third year competing at the ISU Adult Figure Skating Championship, she took the title with a 12 points margin over the second place.