Katsumi Satō

was a Japanese human rights activist, editor, and critic.

He was the chairperson of the Association of Families of Victims Kidnapped by North Korea, and head of the so-called Contemporary Korea Research Institute ("現代コリア研究所").

Life Born in Niigata Prefecture, he left Maki High School and began working for K Line, where he got involved in union activities, and was fired in 1950, during the red scare. He became involved with the repatriation of Koreans from Japan to North Korea, and received 2 medals for this from North Korea (1962, 1964). At the same time he was active in the movement that campaigned against the discrimination of Koreans in Japan. Disappointed with the human rights situation in North Korea, he quit the Japanese Communist Party, of which he had been a member, did so-called tenkō, and became an anti-communist.

He was chairperson of the "Association of Families of Victims Kidnapped by North Korea" (AFVKN) between 1998 and 2008.

He died on December 2, 2013, from pneumonia.