Born on May 15, 1893 (Meiji 26) in Meiji Village, Nakashima District, Aichi Prefecture (today Ichinomiya), as the second daughter of Ichikawa Tokujiro. She graduated from Aichi Women's Normal School (today Aichi University of Education) in 1913, worked as an elementary-school teacher and newspaper reporter, and came to Tokyo in 1918. In 1919 she formed the 'Yuaikai Women's Department' with Yamakawa Kikue and Yosano Akiko. In March 1920 she formed the 'New Women's Association' with Hiratsuka Raicho and Oku Mumeo, developing the movement to revise Article 5 of the Peace Police Law. In 1921 she went to the U.S. and stayed three years, working at the ILO (International Labour Organization) Japanese representative office while observing women's suffrage and labor movements in Chicago and New York. Returning in 1924, she formed the 'Federation for Women's Suffrage Acquisition' (later the Federation for Women's Suffrage) and as secretary-general developed the women's suffrage movement. Even after universal male suffrage in 1925, women's suffrage was not granted, and she continued the movement for 20 years. During the war she was involved in leading the Women's Leaders' Training Institute of the Taisei Yokusankai (later the cause of her postwar purge). In December 1945 women's suffrage was realized, and in the first postwar general election of April 10, 1946, 39 female Diet members were born. She was purged by GHQ in 1947 and reinstated in 1950. In the 1953 House of Councillors election she was elected top of the national constituency, and served five terms totaling 25 years (1953–71, 1974–81). Advocating 'elections that cost no money,' she developed an ideal-election movement and, refusing all bribery or gifts herself, became a byword for 'honesty.' In 1980, aged 87, she ran in the 12th House of Councillors election and was elected top of the national constituency with 2,784,998 votes — a great record. She died of myocardial infarction in Tokyo on February 11, 1981 (Showa 56), aged 87.

Plain, strong, a practical hand, a person of integrity. She valued the steady accumulation of organizing and movement over speeches or theory. She remained single all her life and practiced 'ideal elections' that used no money whatever. At her famous 'Ichikawa Fusae Office,' the principle of refusing all bribery and entertainment was thorough. A rare woman politician in Japanese political history who held ideal and reality together.

Ichikawa Fusae was the greatest figure of the Japanese women's suffrage movement, and the realization of women's suffrage in 1945 was the crystallization of her 25-year campaign. Postwar she served 25 years as a member of the House of Councillors; electoral system reform, political-funding regulation, and the ideal-election movement were the themes of her life, and her top vote record of 1980 is an unshakable monument of Japanese electoral history. Her disciples include Kihira Teiko, Tanaka Sumiko, Yamataka Shigeri, and Akamatsu Ryoko — postwar women politicians and activists — forming the lineage of the Japanese women's movement that continues today. The 'Ichikawa Fusae Memorial Association Center for Women and Politics' in Yoyogi, Tokyo holds related materials and continues research and education. A commemorative stele also stands in Ichinomiya, Aichi.