“I was afraid to look at myself.” Rui Takahashi, a 26-year-old player in Japan’s volleyball league, comes out

26-year-old Japanese volleyball player Rui Takahashi, who plays for Suntory Sunbirds Osaka in the top division of the professional SV. League, has publicly come out as gay. The athlete posted a statement on social media, accompanied by a black-and-white photo of himself. Takahashi explained that he made the decision out of a desire to help others facing difficulties because of their sexual orientation in a country where openly LGBTQ+ athletes remain extremely rare. About this Reports THE JAPAN TIMES.

According to the volleyball player, he had been afraid to face a certain part of himself since childhood, struggled with it for a long time, and ultimately denied who he truly was. The turning point came when he spoke with his brother, Ran Takahashi, a popular star of Japan's national volleyball team. Rui said that it was this conversation with his brother that helped him accept himself for the first time, put his feelings into words, and gradually realize that being himself was perfectly normal. Earlier, in May 2025, the brothers celebrated together after winning the SV. League championship final at Ariake Arena in Tokyo.

In Japanese professional sports, athletes very rarely come out. Rui Takahashi has joined the country's very small group of openly LGBTQ+ athletes:

Rui Takahashi stressed that he would be glad if his decision to face himself and speak openly in the first person could offer even a little encouragement and support to others in similar situations.

• The first soccer player to speak openly about her sexual orientation did so in 2019: Shiho Shimoyamada.
• Later, another athlete came out as a transgender man: Kumi Yokoyama, who played for Japan's women's national team at the World Cup.
• In June 2021, just weeks before the Tokyo Olympics, the Japanese Olympic Committee appointed a transgender former fencer to its board of directors for the first time: Fumino Sugiyama.