Katsunobu Kato

Katsunobu Katō (加藤 勝信, Katō Katsunobu; born 22 November 1955) is a Japanese politician who served as the Minister of Finance under Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba from 2024 to 2025. Previously, he was served as the three-time Minister of Health, Labour, and Welfare under Shinzo Abe from 2017 to 2018 and from 2019 to 2020, and under Fumio Kishida from 2022 to 2023, and as the Chief Cabinet Secretary under Yoshihide Suga from 2020 to 2021. Belonging to the Liberal Democratic Party, he has been a member of the House of Representatives since 2003.

Born and raised in Tokyo and a graduate of the University of Tokyo, Kato had a bureaucratic career in the Ministry of Finance before going into politics.

Early life, family, and career Kato was born as Katsunobu Murosaki (室崎勝信) on 22 November 1955 in Tokyo, Japan. His father, Katsutoshi Murosaki, was an executive at Hino Motors. The family came from Shimane Prefecture, where his grandfather, Katsuzo Murosaki was a businessman and prefectural assemblyman. Kato studied economics at the University of Tokyo and joined the Ministry of Finance upon graduating in 1979. He held several positions, such as chief of the Kurayoshi Tax Office, secretary to Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hideo Watanabe and chief inspector for the labour and defense budgets.

In April 1994, Kato was assigned as secretary to the Minister of Agriculture Mutsuki Kato. Kato married Shuko Kato, the daughter of Mutsuki Kato. As his family had only daughters, Kato was adopted by his father-in-law to carry on his family name. He retired from the Ministry of Finance in 1995 and became his father-in-law's personal secretary.

Political career Then-Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida (left), Katsunobu Kato (center), and Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroshige Sekō (right) at Japanese Prime Minister's Official Residence in Tokyo (15 April 2013).

Kato would pursue his political career in Okayama Prefecture, where his adoptive family was based. After unsuccessful runs in 1998 and 2000, Kato was elected to the House of Representatives for the first time in the 2003 general election. He had initially run as an independent as his father-in-law had left the LDP, however fellow Okayama politician and former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto recruited him for the party and when elected, Kato joined the Heisei Kenkyukai led by Hashimoto. This was significant as Hashimoto and Mutsuki Kato had long been rivals in the political world of Okayama.

Kato became a confidant of Shinzo Abe. This was partially due to a family relationship, as Mutsuki Kato had been a close ally of Abe's father Shintaro Abe and his wife had remained a close friend of Abe's mother, Yoko.

When Shinzo Abe reshuffled his cabinet in August 2017 , Kato became as the Minister of Health, Labor, and Welfare, but he left cabinet in October 2018 when he was appointed Chairman of the General Council, one of four key posts in the LDP. Kato was reappointed as Minister of Health, Labor, and Welfare in September 2019. After the end of the Suga Cabinet after one year, Kato became chairman of the Social Security Research Commission and subcommittee chairman of the Tax Research Commission within the LDP.

In August 2022 when Prime Minister Fumio Kishida reshuffled his cabinet following the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe one month previous, Kato was appointed Minister of Health, Labor, and Welfare for the third time.

Kato left from the cabinet due to the reshuffle in September 2023, after which he once again became chairman of the Social Security Research Commission, and as well as Secretary-General of the LDP Headquarters for Realizing Constitutional Revision. In September 2024, Kato was named to join the cabinet of Shigeru Ishiba as Minister of Finance.

After the end of the Ishiba cabinet, Kato was appointed head of the LDP task force for political system reform, to handle a proposed reduction in diet seats among other issues.

Honours Grand Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau (29 October 2014)

Election history