AIKO was born and raised in Tokyo before moving to New York City in the mid-90′s. Already creating art since a young age, her art career in NYC began when she started working for Takashi Murakami. She apprenticed in Murakami's studio in Brooklyn and worked for him until the late 90′s going on to a direct a digital biography on the artist ("Superflat" 1998). AIKO continued to practice her own art and after leaving Murakami's studio graduated from The New School University where she finished her MFA Media Studies and later met up with two American artists, the three of them would come to establish the group now known as FAILE. Creating work within the collective locally and abroad for a number of years, she moved on and established herself as Lady AIKO in 2006.