Date of birth: July 29, 1951

Nonpolitician

Katayama was known as a leading reformist governor during his two terms in Tottori Prefecture from 1999 to 2007. He promoted an open government and reduced public works while increasing the number of company startups in his prefecture.

Despite his background as a bureaucrat in the old Home Affairs Ministry, Katayama has been a vocal critic of central government bureaucracy. On one occasion he even called the National Governor's Association a "typical entity accepting 'amakudari'" — the parachuting of retired bureaucrats into cushy jobs.

A graduate of the University of Tokyo and now a professor of local administration at Keio University, Katayama is a member of the Government Revitalization Unit, which seeks to to cut or streamline spending on various projects.