Ito was born on 25 April 2002, in
Morioka, Iwate Prefecture, Japan.[2] She started climbing in her third year of elementary school, encouraged by her father who did sport climbing as a hobby. Her talent was apparent from early on; on her first day of climbing, she reportedly surprised her father by climbing 15 meters up high without stopping, despite not having had any prior climbing experience.[4]
She started taking part in public tournaments in 2014, when she came in second place at the 17th Junior Olympic Cup in the under-Youth B age group in
lead climbing.[5]
In 2015, she achieved victory in the Japan Youth Championships lead event (under-Youth B age group),[6] and the All Japan Climbing Youth Championships Bouldering Tournament (Youth C).[7] In the same year, she also won both the lead and bouldering events (Youth C) while representing Japan in the
IFSC Climbing Asian Youth Championships in
Putrajaya, Malaysia.[8]
In 2016, she entered the All Japan Climbing Championships Lead Tournament, where she came 3rd in the girls' senior category, and won the Youth B category.[9] In November of the same year she represented Japan in the
IFSC World Youth Championships in
Guangzhou, China, where she came 2nd in bouldering in the girls' Youth B category.[10]
In January 2017, Ito won the 12th Sport Climbing Bouldering Japan Cup, where she faced the more experienced Japanese climbers
Akiyo Noguchi and
Miho Nonaka.[11][12][4] At 14 years and 9 months, Ito was youngest person ever to win the Japan Cup, beating Noguchi's 16 years and 3 months at the first Japan Cup in 2005.[12][4] She was also the youngest athlete to represent Japan in the
2018 Bouldering World Cup, where she placed 8th.[13][14]