Born and raised in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture,[1] Shimizu played youth football for Tokyo Verdy Beleza and subsequently began her professional career with the club in 2013.

[5] While at the academy, she befriended and rose through the ranks with fellow players such as Yui Hasegawa and Yuka Momiki, all of whom would go on to play for the Japan national team together.

[6] In addition to football, Shimizu was a talented runner from an early age and had competed in statewide marathon competitions at elementary level.

[7] Having progressed through the youth set-up of Tokyo Verdy Beleza, the club with the most number of titles in the top flight of women's football in Japan, Shimizu was promoted to the senior team at the age of seventeen.

In 2012, she was selected to the Japan U-17 national team for 2012 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, where she scored in a group stage win against Mexico.

[19] This success was followed by a gold medal in the 2018 Asian Games, where Japan emerged champions of yet another closely contested final, with a 90th-minute goal at the death to win 1–0 over China.

[22][23] Shimizu was selected for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris and played in Japan's opening match against Norway but suffered a knee injury which ruled her out of the rest of the tournament.

[26] However, the qualities she has garnered the most praise for are her especially high work-rate and stamina, earning a reputation as a right-back who can make repeated overlapping runs over the course of a full match, contributing as much to attacking plays as she does to defending.

As with many Japanese players that are noted for their technical abilities on the ball,[28] Shimizu often plays a key role in assisting goals from the high degree of accuracy on her early crosses and penetrative passes into the penalty box following dribbles down the byline.