Kentaro Takahashi

is a Japanese male volleyball player. He is part of the Japan men's national volleyball team. Currently, he plays in V.League division 1 for JTEKT Stings

Personal life

His family consists of his father, Kazuhiko Takahashi, who used to play Baseball; his mother; an older sister; and a younger sister, who are Long jump athletes.

Career Kentaro used to play Baseball before and he aimed to be professional baseball player. But at 15 years old, he broke his elbow so he had to quit playing baseball. After that, he attended at Yonezawa Chuo High School, he started to play volleyball and had an initiation about his future career as a volleyball player.

In 2012, He had selected as a Japan men's national under-19 volleyball team for the first time and received the bronze medal from the 2012 Asian Youth Boys Volleyball Championship.

In 2014, Kentaro had registered in Japan men's national volleyball team for the first time and entered University of Tsukuba respectively. Then, he was dubbed by the then national team coach Masashi Nanbu as one of "NEXT4", the word that referred to 4 players who would be the future of Japanese men's national team, alongside Masahiro Yanagida, Yūki Ishikawa and Akihiro Yamauchi.

In 2016, Kentaro decided to join Toray Arrows volleyball club in V.League and started playing for the team in 2016–17 season.

Ahead of 2022 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship, he quit national team for family matter. He returned to the team in 2023. After the 2024 Paris Olympics, he announced his retirement from the national team.

Individual Award 2021-2022 V.League Division 1 - Best Blocker 2021-2022 V.League Division 1 - Best 6 2021-2022 V.League Division 1 - Fair Play Award 2022–2023 V.League Division 1- Best Blocker