Nanami Seki: Career, Stats, Awards & Current Club

Nanami Seki is a Japanese setter who has represented the Japan women’s national team since 2019. Born in Funabashi, Chiba, on June 12, 1999, she stands 171 cm and has developed into an international-level playmaker through a career spanning Toray Arrows in Japan and two of Italy’s Serie A1 clubs, Imoco Volley Conegliano and UYBA Busto Arsizio. She represented Japan at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and has remained part of the senior national-team program through 2026.

Seki established herself immediately in Japan’s top domestic league, earning Best Rookie and Best Six recognition in her first season with Toray. Her move to Conegliano in 2024 brought a season alongside some of the world’s leading players and a sweep of Italy’s major domestic prizes, the Club World Championship and the CEV Champions League. She then moved to Busto Arsizio for a larger role and renewed with UYBA for the 2026–27 season. Internationally, her record includes 2024 VNL silver, a fourth-place finish at the 2025 World Championship and silver at the 2026 Asian Games.

Player Information

Field	Details
Full Name	Nanami Seki (関菜々巳)
Date of Birth	June 12, 1999
Place of Birth	Funabashi, Chiba, Japan
Nationality	Japanese
Position	Setter
Height	171 cm
Weight	60 kg
Spike Reach	292 cm
Block Reach	273 cm
Dominant Hand	Right
High School	Chiba Prefectural Kashiwai High School
Previous Clubs	Toray Arrows; Prosecco DOC Imoco Volley Conegliano
Current Club	Laica Cioccolato UYBA Busto Arsizio
Club Number	5
National Team	Japan Women’s National Volleyball Team
National-Team Number	6 during the 2026 international season
Instagram	@nanami_0612

Japan’s 2026 national-team listing and the current Italian league record both list Seki at 171 cm, while the 2026 Monthly Volleyball profile gives a 292 cm spike reach and 273 cm block reach. The 292 cm figure is newer than the 284 cm mark shown in earlier annual profiles, so the updated 2026 measurement is used here. Weight and dominant hand are drawn from the established Volleybox database where current first-party profiles do not publish those fields. UYBA’s official player page directly links her Instagram handle, removing the need to infer the account from her name.

For 2026–27, the Italian league lists Seki as No. 5 for Laica Cioccolato UYBA. Japan used No. 6 for her in both the 2026 Volleyball Nations League and the Asian Games.

Early Life & Volleyball Beginnings

Seki grew up in Funabashi and began volleyball in the second grade of elementary school. Her older sister was already playing, and her father coached, so joining the sport developed naturally from the environment around her. She attended Hoden Nishi Elementary School and Gyoda Junior High School before moving on to Chiba Prefectural Kashiwai High School.

The setter position appealed to her because of the amount of influence it offered over a match. In a Funabashi City interview about her development, Seki described the challenge of touching the ball frequently and shaping an offense through her choices. By her third year at Kashiwai, she was captain and helped the school reach the national top 16 at the All Japan High School Championship.

Her development also reached the international age-group level. Seki was selected for Japan at the 2016 Asian U19 Championship. Japan finished runner-up at that tournament; the Japan Volleyball Association’s annual report records silver for the women’s U19 team. That official result resolves a discrepancy in some later club biographies that describe the 2016 result as gold.

After high school, Seki moved into the top domestic game with Toray Arrows. Contemporary career records consistently place the start of her senior Toray career in 2018, and her first league season immediately put her into a major competitive role.

Club Career

Toray Arrows: An Immediate Top-League Breakthrough

Seki joined Toray in 2018 and played 33 matches in the 2018–19 league season. Toray reached the championship final, while Seki’s individual debut season brought both the Best Rookie award and a place in the league’s Best Six. It was an unusually fast transition from high-school volleyball to running a top-division offense.

The first season was not an isolated peak. She remained Toray’s setter for six seasons, won the Kurowashiki Tournament in 2019 and later collected another Best Six selection in 2020–21. Over time, she became one of the recognizable setters of her generation in Japan’s domestic league.

Toray also provided the base for Seki’s senior international breakthrough. She entered Japan’s national-team group in 2019 while still early in her professional career, making the domestic and international parts of her development overlap rather than unfold in separate phases.

By early 2024, Seki was ready to test herself outside Japan. Toray announced her departure after six seasons and specifically linked the decision to her strong desire to challenge herself in an overseas league. That choice led directly to one of the most demanding possible destinations for a setter: reigning Italian powerhouse Conegliano.

Learning Inside Conegliano’s Championship System

Prosecco DOC Imoco Volley Conegliano signed Seki in June 2024 as the second setter behind Polish captain Joanna Wołosz. She wore No. 6 and entered a roster that also included players such as Isabelle Haak, Gabi, Zhu Ting, Monica De Gennaro and Sarah Fahr. The role was different from the one she had held at Toray: instead of carrying the same volume of responsibility as the primary setter, she had to learn and contribute inside one of the deepest teams in club volleyball.

That season exposed Seki to a different daily standard. Training and competition took place around established Olympic and world-level players, while Wołosz provided a direct reference point for elite setting at the European club level. Seki’s move therefore mattered even when she was not starting every match; it changed the tactical and physical environment in which she was learning the position.

The results were exceptional. During Seki’s 2024–25 season, Conegliano won the Italian Super Cup, FIVB Club World Championship, Coppa Italia, Italian Serie A1 championship and CEV Champions League. The Italian league’s official player record credits Seki with one title in each of those five competitions.

Winning everything available did not make the season a simple personal story of uninterrupted playing time. Seki had joined as Wołosz’s alternative, and the value of the year lay partly in observing how an experienced setter managed a roster with multiple elite attacking options. That experience became relevant when she left Conegliano for a club where she could assume a larger role.

UYBA Busto Arsizio and a Bigger Setting Role

Seki moved to UYBA Busto Arsizio for 2025–26, remaining in Serie A1 but entering a different competitive situation. Instead of serving primarily as the alternative to an established captain, she could take greater responsibility for organizing the offense. Her first complete UYBA league season produced 49 points, including 12 aces and five blocks, alongside the setting responsibilities that do not appear in ordinary scoring totals.

UYBA valued the partnership enough to settle her next season early. The club confirmed Seki’s renewal for 2026–27 and described the setter as one of the technical and character reference points of the team. Seki said that the club, staff, teammates and supporters had made her feel at home and that she believed she could continue growing within the project.

The renewal made Busto Arsizio more than a one-year stop after Conegliano. The Italian league’s current records list Seki with UYBA for both 2025–26 and 2026–27, wearing No. 5 in each season.

Nanami Seki moved to Italy in 2024 after six seasons with Toray Arrows.

Club Career Timeline

Seasons	Team	Country
2018–2024	Toray Arrows	Japan
2024–25	Prosecco DOC Imoco Volley Conegliano	Italy
2025–present	UYBA Busto Arsizio	Italy

The timeline is supported by Conegliano’s player archive, Toray departure reporting and the Italian league’s current career record.

National Team Career

Senior Debut and a Best Setter Award in 2019

Seki entered Japan’s senior national-team pool in 2019. Her first season at that level quickly produced an individual international distinction: Japan finished runner-up at the Montreux Volley Masters, and Seki was named the tournament’s Best Setter. The Japan Volleyball Association described her as a first-time senior selection who had made an impact on the international stage.

Later that year, Seki was part of the youthful Japan squad that won the Asian Championship in Seoul. Japan defeated Thailand 3–1 in the final to retain the continental title, and the tournament roster included Seki as one of the team’s two setters.

The combination of Montreux and the Asian Championship established Seki internationally before she had completed even two full senior club seasons. Her national-team career did not progress in a straight line from there, however. Competition for the setter role remained significant, and later major events required her to earn her way back into increasingly important assignments.

World Championship, Olympic Qualification and Paris 2024

Seki’s major senior-tournament résumé expanded with the 2022 World Championship and the 2023 Olympic qualification campaign. By the Paris cycle she was again a central part of Japan’s setter group, working alongside veteran Koyomi Iwasaki.

Japan’s 2024 Volleyball Nations League became one of the defining team results of that cycle. The team defeated Brazil in the semifinal to secure its first women’s VNL medal and then lost 3–1 to Italy in the final, taking historic silver. Seki was on Japan’s roster throughout the competition as No. 6.

She then made her Olympic debut at Paris 2024. Japan selected Seki as one of its setters, and the JOC records the team’s final Olympic placing as ninth. Her role was often that of the second setter behind Iwasaki, which demanded readiness to change rhythm or stabilize the offense from the bench rather than control every match from the opening point.

That Olympic experience came just before Seki left Japan for Conegliano. The timing connected two major steps in her career: competing on the Olympic stage and then entering an Italian club environment built around championship expectations.

A Larger Role at the 2025 World Championship

Seki remained with Japan in 2025 and played an important role at the World Championship. Japan reached the semifinals before losing to Türkiye, then pushed Brazil to five sets in the bronze-medal match and finished fourth.

Her setting performance also stood out statistically. Volleyball World’s post-tournament review identified Seki as the player who topped the World Championship’s best-setter statistical chart. That distinction should not be confused with a separate Dream Team award; it reflects her position at the top of the tournament’s statistical setting ranking.

Seki played a major setting role as Japan reached the 2025 World Championship semifinals.

The 2025 tournament was therefore significant for more than Japan’s fourth-place finish. It gave Seki a sustained major-event role after the more rotational responsibilities of Paris and provided a clear statistical marker for her ability to organize Japan’s offense at the highest international level.

2026 VNL and Asian Games Silver

Seki remained in Japan’s registered senior group in 2026 and again wore No. 6. She took part in the Volleyball Nations League, where Volleyball World recorded 15 points from six attacks, one block and eight aces. Japan’s VNL campaign ended in the quarterfinal stage.

Her international season continued at the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya. Seki was named to Japan’s tournament roster, and the team reached the final before finishing with the silver medal. The Japanese Olympic Committee lists the Asian Games silver among Seki’s major international results.

That result confirmed that Seki remained an active part of Japan’s senior setter group beyond the Paris Olympic cycle rather than having a national-team résumé limited to a single Games.

Playing Style & Strengths

Seki’s offensive identity starts with her willingness to involve the middle of the net. In her Funabashi City interview, she described her own setting style as one that actively uses the middle blockers and then expands the offense toward the pins. The intention is not simply to play fast for its own sake: even when increasing tempo, she tries to avoid taking the set so low that the attacker loses a comfortable hitting window.

That detail captures an important part of her game. Seki uses speed to put pressure on the opposing block, but the quality of the hitter’s contact remains the priority. Her preferred offense works best when the middle remains a credible threat, because that forces blockers to respect first-tempo options and can create cleaner one-on-one situations outside. This interpretation follows directly from the setting pattern she has described rather than treating fast tempo as an isolated stylistic label.

Decision-making under pressure has also been part of her development. Earlier in her career, Seki acknowledged that difficult scorelines could make her more conservative and easier for opponents to read. With experience, she worked toward reading the defense more actively and finding attacking patterns that opponents were less prepared for rather than retreating into a predictable distribution.

The move to Italy added another layer. Conegliano placed her inside a roster with exceptional attacking range and alongside Joanna Wołosz, giving Seki a year of direct exposure to how an elite European setter manages tempo, distribution and hitter relationships across multiple competitions. Her next move to UYBA then required her to turn that learning into more regular responsibility. Conegliano’s original signing announcement had explicitly positioned Seki as Wołosz’s alternative; UYBA later described her as a technical reference point after her first season in Busto Arsizio.

Serving provides a secondary source of direct scoring pressure. During the 2025–26 Italian league season she recorded 12 aces, and in the 2026 VNL she added eight more. Those numbers do not define her role, but they show that her contribution is not restricted to organizing the attack from the setting zone.

At 171 cm, Seki is not an unusually tall international setter, so timing, movement and reading are especially important when she is front row. Her 273 cm listed block reach gives context to that physical profile. The more distinctive part of her value remains offensive organization: creating an early middle threat, preserving hitter-friendly set height at speed and changing distribution before the opposing block can settle into an easy read.

Major Achievements

Selected National Team Honors

Year	Competition	Result
2016	Asian U19 Championship	Silver medal
2019	Montreux Volley Masters	Silver medal
2019	Asian Championship	Gold medal
2024	Volleyball Nations League	Silver medal
2024	Paris Olympic Games	9th place / Olympic appearance
2025	FIVB Women’s World Championship	4th place
2026	Asian Games	Silver medal

Japan’s 2016 U19 result is recorded as silver in the JVA’s official annual report; the 2019 Montreux silver and Best Setter award are also documented by the federation. The 2024 VNL silver was Japan’s first medal in the women’s competition, while the JOC records Seki’s Paris appearance and 2026 Asian Games silver.

Selected Club Honors

Season / Year	Competition	Result
2018–19	Japan V.League Division 1	Runner-up
2019	Kurowashiki Tournament	Champion
2024	Italian Super Cup	Champion
2024	FIVB Club World Championship	Champion
2025	Coppa Italia	Champion
2024–25	Italian Serie A1	Champion
2024–25	CEV Champions League	Champion

Seki’s five major Italian and international club titles all came during her single season with Conegliano. The Italian league’s official career record credits her with one Italian championship, one Coppa Italia, one Super Cup, one Champions League and one Club World Championship.

Seki spent the 2024–25 season with Conegliano before moving to UYBA Busto Arsizio.

Selected Individual Awards & Distinctions

Year / Season	Competition	Recognition
2018–19	Japan V.League Division 1	Best Rookie
2018–19	Japan V.League Division 1	Best Six
2019	Montreux Volley Masters	Best Setter
2020–21	Japan V.League Division 1	Best Six
2025	FIVB Women’s World Championship	Statistical leader in Best Setter ranking

Seki’s first-season domestic awards are documented in Toray career reporting, while the JVA confirms her 2019 Montreux Best Setter honor. Volleyball World placed her first in the setting statistics at the 2025 World Championship.

Personal Life & Interests

Family played a direct role in Seki’s introduction to volleyball. Her older sister was already involved in the sport, and her father coached, so Seki began playing at Tsukada JSC while she was still in the second grade. That connection remained part of how she described her earliest volleyball memories years later.

Away from matches, food has appeared regularly in interviews as one of her ways to relax. Earlier in her career she spoke about enjoying good food and sweets on days off, and ice cream has been mentioned among her favorites. Her move to Italy also changed ordinary life away from the gym: living alone overseas required her to cook more for herself and adapt to a different daily routine.

Seki’s stated motto is “Continuity is strength,” a phrase that fits the gradual nature of her development. Her career did not move directly from first-year domestic success to an uncontested national-team role. She spent years refining the position, competing for international opportunities and eventually choosing an overseas move at 25 to expose herself to a different level of club volleyball. The motto is displayed in Funabashi City’s profile of her career.

Gear & Equipment

In May 2026, Descente Japan announced an advisory agreement between Seki and its MOVE SPORT brand covering sportswear, supports and related athletic products. The partnership also includes athlete feedback connected with product development and promotion.

The announcement is particularly relevant to Seki’s equipment profile because it is a direct athlete-brand relationship rather than an inference from match photography. Seki linked the partnership to the functional demands of setting, describing the brand’s focus on performance-oriented design as compatible with the precision required in her position. MOVE SPORT also lists Seki among its contracted volleyball athletes.

An exact current shoe model is not necessary to define the partnership: the documented relationship covers sportswear and supports and is the more durable equipment reference as individual models can change between seasons.

Where Is Nanami Seki Playing Now?

Seki is playing for Laica Cioccolato UYBA Busto Arsizio in Italy’s Serie A1 during the 2026–27 season. The official league roster lists her as No. 5, and UYBA had already announced her renewal in February 2026 after her first season with the club.

The renewal gave Seki continuity after two very different Italian seasons: first as the second setter within Conegliano’s title-winning roster, then with substantially greater responsibility at Busto Arsizio. UYBA’s announcement described her as a player around whom the club wanted to build its future, while Seki said she believed she could continue growing within the project.

Seki moved to UYBA Busto Arsizio for a larger setting role in Italy.

She also remained active with the Japan women’s national team throughout 2026. Seki wore No. 6 at the VNL and was again selected for the Asian Games, where Japan won silver.

Recent Performance Snapshot

Competition	Team	Verified Snapshot
2025–26 Italian Serie A1	UYBA Busto Arsizio	49 points: 32 attacks, 5 blocks, 12 aces
2025 World Championship	Japan	4th place; No. 1 in tournament Best Setter statistical ranking
2026 Volleyball Nations League	Japan	15 points: 6 attacks, 1 block, 8 aces
2026 Asian Games	Japan	Silver medal

Seki’s completed 2025–26 club statistics show an unusually visible scoring contribution for a setter, particularly the 12 service aces. The 2025 World Championship provides a more position-specific marker: Volleyball World identified her as the statistical leader in setting as Japan advanced to the final four.

In 2026, she continued to contribute from the service line during the VNL and then remained in Japan’s squad through the Asian Games, finishing that tournament with silver. Those completed international results provide a more durable recent-performance reference than an early-season 2026–27 club stat line that is still changing.

Seki remained a central part of Japan’s senior setter group through the 2025 World Championship cycle.

Frequently Asked Questions

How tall is Nanami Seki?

Nanami Seki is 171 cm tall. The Japan Volleyball Association, UYBA and the Italian league all currently list the same height.

What position does Nanami Seki play?

Seki is a setter. Her game is particularly associated with actively involving middle blockers, using that threat to open the pins and maintaining a fast tempo without taking the ball too low for her attackers.

Which club does Nanami Seki play for?

Seki plays for Laica Cioccolato UYBA Busto Arsizio in Italy’s Serie A1. She wears No. 5 and is confirmed on the club’s 2026–27 roster.

What number does Nanami Seki wear for Japan?

Seki wore No. 6 for Japan during both the 2026 Volleyball Nations League and the 2026 Asian Games.

Did Nanami Seki play at the Paris Olympics?

Yes. Seki represented Japan at Paris 2024 as a setter. The Japanese Olympic Committee records Japan’s women’s volleyball team in ninth place.

When did Nanami Seki join Japan’s senior national team?

Seki was first selected for the senior Japan program in 2019. That year she helped Japan finish second at the Montreux Volley Masters and was named Best Setter.

What did Nanami Seki win with Conegliano?

During the 2024–25 season, Seki won the Italian Super Cup, Club World Championship, Coppa Italia, Italian Serie A1 title and CEV Champions League with Conegliano.

What is Nanami Seki’s Instagram?

Her official Instagram account is @nanami_0612. UYBA links that handle directly from Seki’s official club profile.

Nanami Seki

About Nanami Seki