Futaba Ito is a Japanese professional rock climber, sport climber and boulderer. She participates in both bouldering and lead climbing competitions. She won the IFSC Climbing Asian Youth Championships in lead and bouldering events in 2016, as well as Bouldering Japan Cup in 2017. She participated in combined and speed events at the 2018 Asian Games.

The 2018 season of the IFSC Climbing World Cup was the 20th season of the competition. Bouldering competitions were held at seven stops of the IFSC Climbing World Cup. The bouldering season began on April 13 at the World Cup in Meiringen, and concluded on 18 August with the World Cup in Munich. At each stop a qualifying was held on the first day of the competition, and the semi-final and final rounds are conducted on the second day of the competition. The winners were awarded trophies, and the best three finishers received medals. At the end of the season an overall ranking was determined based upon points, which athletes were awarded for finishing in the top 30 of each individual event. Jernej Kruder won the seasonal title in the men's competition and Miho Nonaka won the women's. Japan won the national team competition.