Rui Takahashi’s Coming Out Inspires Reon Arao to Speak About His LGBTQ+ Identity

Just hours after Japanese volleyball player Rui Takahashi publicly came out as gay, another professional player has spoken openly about his own LGBTQ+ identity — and says Takahashi’s decision helped give him the courage to do it.

Reon Arao, the 25-year-old libero for Voreas Hokkaido, shared a personal statement explaining that, if he had to choose a label within LGBTQ+, he feels closest to Q, or Questioning. Rather than placing strict boundaries around his gender identity or the gender of the people he may be attracted to, Arao described a much simpler way of understanding himself: he is himself.

Reon Arao says he feels closest to ‘Questioning’

Arao described growing up with friends of different genders and gradually realising that ideas such as “cute”, “cool” and “beautiful” were not simply things he admired in other people, but could also become connected to attraction. He said he has sometimes felt uncomfortable with expectations built around being a man or a woman, including phrases that suggest somebody should behave in a particular way simply because of their gender.

He also explained that the word “coming out” had once felt intimidating. Rather than presenting his identity as something he had suddenly discovered, Arao’s statement described a longer process of learning not to force himself into a category that did not necessarily feel right.

That distinction matters. Questioning can describe people who are exploring or choosing not to rigidly define aspects of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Arao has used that language for himself, and that is the definition that matters here.

Rui Takahashi gave another player the courage to speak

The most striking part of Arao’s announcement is the timing.

Only hours earlier, Rui Takahashi of Suntory Sunbirds Osaka had publicly said he is gay, speaking about his own journey towards accepting his sexuality and his hope that doing so might help somebody else who was struggling with theirs.

It apparently already has.

Arao specifically credited Takahashi’s courage as one of the reasons he decided to speak publicly. He explained that seeing another professional volleyball player take that step encouraged him to express his own identity in his own words. Arao then turned the idea around: having received courage from somebody else, he now hopes his own openness might offer the same encouragement to another person.

It is difficult to find a cleaner example of why representation can matter.

Coming out does not automatically change a sport, a country or an entire culture. Visibility also carries different risks for different people, and nobody should ever feel obliged to disclose their sexuality or gender identity publicly. But here we have something unusually immediate: one athlete spoke, and another athlete directly said that seeing him do so made his own wall feel a little easier to climb.

Two LGBTQ+ stories in Japanese volleyball, one day apart

Arao currently plays as a libero for Voreas Hokkaido in Japan’s SV.League. The league’s official player profile lists him as part of the club, while Voreas confirmed his contract for the 2026–27 season earlier this year.

Neither Arao nor Takahashi has suggested that their identity should suddenly become the defining feature of their sporting careers. Both have instead spoken about continuing to focus on volleyball while being more open about who they are.

And perhaps that is the most refreshing part of this story.

Yesterday, the question was whether Rui Takahashi’s visibility might make somebody else feel less alone. Today, we already have part of the answer.

Someone was watching. And it mattered.