Soccer player Shiho Shimoyamada has been encouraged by the response she has received since she became Japan's first openly gay professional athlete in February last year.
Now, with this summer's Tokyo Olympics focusing the world's sporting attention on Japan, she is hoping that attitudes towards LGBT people in her home country can continue to evolve.
"There will be several openly gay athletes competing at the Tokyo Olympics," said the 25-year-old Shimoyamada. "When people in Japan see LGBT athletes with their own eyes, and see them competing alongside athletes who aren't LGBT, that will have a big impact, for sure. People will see that LGBT athletes are just like any other athletes."
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