As soon as he graduated from high school and went to college, one of the women in his class was the younger sister of Shōichirō Akaboshi, so he started going to the rehearsal room of Matenrō Theater Company run by Takuya Hiramitsu with her help, and after being involved in a couple of productions as a staff member, he joined the stage as an actor.
[5] Naturally, he had no experience in dubbing, and although he was the lead actor, he did not understand the technical terms included in the director's instructions, but he was helped by his co-stars Keiko Toda and Jōji Yanami, and he still looks up to them as his teachers.
In 1985, Yao played the role of Shinobu Fujiwara in the TV anime series Dancouga – Super Beast Machine God.
This is the series that Yao considers most memorable, and he says it was the show that made him understand what it meant to play an anime character.
A "graduation ceremony" for Yao was held on December 22 of that year during Jump Festa, where the show announced his replacement as Subaru Kimura.