was a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party who held a seat in the House of Representatives in the National Diet for 13 terms between 1972 and 2012. Kato was elected to several districts in Yamagata Prefecture and served as the Director-General of the Japan Defense Agency from 1984 to 1986 and Chief Cabinet Secretary from 1991 to 1992. Kato was a leading member of the Kōchikai faction of the LDP aligned with Prime Ministers Masayoshi Ōhira, Zenkō Suzuki, and Kiichi Miyazawa. Kato lost his seat at the December 2012 general election, and his daughter Ayuko Kato was elected to the seat at the 2014 general election. Early life Kato was born on 17 June 1939 in Higashi Ward, Nagoya, and raised in Tsuruoka, Yamagata Prefecture. His father, , was a politician who served as mayor of Tsuruoka from 1946 before being elected to the House of Representatives in 1952, serving for five terms until 1965. After graduating from the University of Tokyo, Kato joined the Foreign Ministry in 1963, which led to stints at the Japanese embassies in Taipei and Washington, D.C. In 1967 he completed a Master's degree at Harvard University. After continuing his foreign service career in Hong Kong he returned to Japan as an aide in the China Affairs Bureau of the Foreign Ministry. His experience in foreign affairs resulted in fluent English and Chinese, and he remained deeply interested in relations with China. Political career Kato was first elected to the National Diet in 1972 as a member of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), representing his native Yamagata and represented that area continuously until 2012, except for a 19-month period following his resignation due to a scandal in April 2002. Kato was aligned with the Kōchikai (then called Ōhira) faction of the LDP, which produced three Japanese Prime Ministers; Masayoshi Ōhira, Zenkō Suzuki, and Kiichi Miyazawa. The power of this faction provided Kato ample opportunity for promotion, and he served in several Cabinet Positions through the 1980s and early 1990s. From 1984 to 1986, he was Director General of the Japan Defense Agency. In 1992, he was elected Secretary-General of the LDP, a time when the traditional dominance of the party was being challenged. YKK and the 2000 leadership challenge Always seen as something of a maverick, Kato formed a relationship with two other young LDP reformers, Taku Yamasaki and Junichiro Koizumi, during the