Satsuki Katayama


Satsuki Katayama is a Japanese politician serving her first term in Japan's House of Councillors, having been elected in July 2010 as a candidate for the Liberal Democratic Party. She previously represented the Shizuoka 7th district in the House of Representatives for one term from 2005 until 2009.

Overview

Katayama was born in Urawa, Saitama Prefecture. After graduation with a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Tokyo, where she was chosen Miss Tokyo University, Katayama found employment in the Ministry of Finance as a secretary for Finance Minister Michio Watanabe. She was elected to the House of Representatives for the first time in the 2005 general election and served as Deputy Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry. She was one of 83 so-called "Koizumi Children," LDP candidates elected for the first time amid the widespread popularity of reformist prime minister Junichiro Koizumi; Koizumi touted Katayama as a "madonna of reform."
Katayama and 72 other "Koizumi Children" were defeated in the 2009 general election, in which the Democratic Party of Japan routed the LDP. Following the 2009 election, Katayama commented that "the past four years have been a fight against the symbols of Koizumi's reforms, and we have proved they were wrong." She later characterized herself as a "war-displaced orphan" in 2011.
She married political science professor Yōichi Masuzoe in 1986 while working at the Ministry of Finance. They separated after several months, divorced in 1989 and are both remarried. Masuzoe later became a prominent media personality and member of the House of Councillors, and both Masuzoe and Katayama were considered by the LDP as candidates for the 2014 gubernatorial election in Tokyo. Prime Minister of Japan Shinzō Abe, who led the LDP to endorse Masuzoe in his successful election, said that he wanted Katayama more than anyone else to stand in support of Masuzoe, but Katayama responded that it was difficult for her to do so given Masuzoe's publicized dispute over support payments to one of his extramarital children, who is disabled.
On 1 May 2019, she attended the presentation of the Three Sacred Treasures to Emperor Naruhito. In the last such ceremony in 1989, only males were allowed to be in attendance; however in 2019 all cabinet members were allowed to attend regardless of sex, although only male adults from the imperial family could attend.