While studying at Saitama Sakae High School, she represented the school in the sprints. In 2005, she won the
100 metres at the national high school championships and then the
200 metres at the
National Sports Festival of Japan. In 2006, she established herself with a Japanese junior and high school record of 11.54 seconds for the
100 metres. A third place in the event at that year's
Japanese Athletics Championships brought her selection for the
2006 Asian Games. She was sixth in the 100 m final and won a
silver medal with the Japanese women's
4×100 metres relay team, finishing behind China. Takahashi claimed her first national title at the 2007 Japanese Championships, reaching the top of the podium in the women's 100 m. She competed at the
2007 Summer Universiade and ran the 100 m individual and relay events at
Osaka's
2007 World Championships in Athletics, although she did not make it past the heats in either competition. She won a relay medal at the
2007 Asian Athletics Championships that year, as the Japanese were runners-up to Thailand. The 2008 season was not as productive for her, as she was fourth nationally and did not get selected for the
2008 Beijing Olympics, but she did improve her 200 m best to 23.48 seconds. Competing on the world stage for a second time, she ran in the heats of the 100 m, 200 m, and 4×100 m relay of the
2009 World Championships. A medal came at the
2009 Summer Universiade (100 m silver) and she ended the year as the continental champion, having won
gold medals in the 200 m and relay at the
2009 Asian Athletics Championships. These performances were part of a Japanese sweep of the women's sprints, as her teammates Fukushima and
Asami Tanno won the 100 m and
400 metres titles respectively. Takahashi also set her first
Japanese national record that year, as she anchored home a 4 × 100 m relay team of
Saori Kitakaze, Fukushima and
Mayumi Watanabe in a time of 43.58 seconds at the
Osaka Grand Prix. The 2010 Japanese nationals saw a reversal of the previous year, as Takahashi won the 200 m but was runner-up to Fukushima over 100 m. She was one of the Asia-Pacific team's representatives at the
2010 IAAF Continental Cup, but she finished last in the 200 m, while the Japanese women's relay team that she anchored met a similar fate. She did not manage an individual medal at the
2010 Asian Games in November (coming fourth and sixth in the 100 m and 200 m finals), but she helped a Japanese quartet claim a bronze medal in the short relay. Her 2011 began with a new national relay record at the
Seiko Golden Grand Prix, where she,
Saori Kitakaze, Fukushima and
Kana Ichikawa knocked nearly two-tenths off the previous time with their run of 43.39 seconds. ==International competitions==