Rui Takahashi, the Japanese volleyball star who plays for the Suntory Sunbirds Osaka, has come out as gay.

The 26-year-old athlete shared the news on Instagram on Tuesday (29 September), alongside a black-and-white photograph of himself, opening up about his journey towards accepting a part of his identity he had long struggled with.

“Since childhood, I had struggled with and feared facing a certain aspect of myself, often rejecting who I was,” he wrote, translated from Japanese to English. “That aspect is the fact that I am gay – that I belong to the sexual minority community.”

In his statement, Takahashi revealed that a conversation with his younger brother, Ran, helped him come to terms with his sexuality.