Born in
Sagamihara, she attended Kanagawa Prefectural Asamizodai High School and competed in the
1500 metres as a teenager. A small and light runner – 1.55 m tall (5 ft 1 in) and 39 kg in weight (86 lbs) – she made her first appearance at the
Japan Championships in Athletics in 2005, finishing fourth in the 1500 m final. She broke through at the senior level the following year, winning the Japanese title, running at the
World Cross Country Short Race and placing seventh at the
2006 Asian Games. Yoshikawa maintained her position as the top Japanese 1500 m runner by winning a second national title in 2007. She was fourth at the
2007 Asian Athletics Championships and for the first time she represented Japan at the
World Championships in Athletics, held in
Osaka. She won three further national titles from 2008 to 2010, but did not achieve the qualifying standards for the
2008 Beijing Olympics or the
2009 World Championships in Athletics. She did race regionally however, finishing seventh at the
2009 Asian Athletics Championships and sixth at the
2010 Asian Games. Having reached a plateau in her middle distance career, she changed her focus to running over longer distances from 2011 onwards. Her transition to long-distance proved successful in the 2012 season. She significantly improved her
10,000 metres personal best to 31:28.71 minutes in her win at the Japanese Championships, beating the more favoured
Kayoko Fukushi and gaining selection for
Japan at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Here, she finished sixteenth in the
10,000 metres race, but was knocked out in the heats of the
5000 metres race. She ran the final leg of the 2013
Inter-Prefectural Women's Ekiden and helped
Kanagawa Prefecture to a new course record. Her personal best times are 4:10.00 minutes in the
1500 metres, achieved in May 2007 in
Osaka; 9:02.71 minutes in the
3000 metres, achieved in June 2011 in
Abashiri; 15:28.44 minutes in the
5000 metres, achieved at the 2012 Olympics in
London; 31:28.71 minutes in the
10,000 metres, achieved in June 2012 in
Osaka; and 71:13 minutes in the
half marathon, achieved in February 2011 in
Marugame. ==References==