Ryozo Kato

Ryozo Kato studied law at the University of Tokyo and Yale before pursuing a Foreign Ministry career that began in 1965. His responsibilities included national security, treaties, Asian affairs, and foreign policy coordination. He served four times in the United States, including as consul-general in San Francisco, and also worked in Australia and Egypt. By the time he became ambassador in 2001, he had served as deputy foreign minister. ¹

On February 19, 2004, Kato signed a social security agreement with Commissioner Jo Anne Barnhart. The arrangement was designed to prevent covered workers and employers from contributing to both countries’ systems for the same employment and to coordinate benefit coverage. Kato remained ambassador until 2008 and later worked on educational and cultural exchange as Japan chair of CULCON. ^{1, 2}

Baseball was another lasting American connection. As a teenager he watched the Dodgers during their 1956 goodwill tour of Japan. After his ambassadorship he became commissioner of Nippon Professional Baseball, serving from 2008 to 2013. In 2013 he joined Peter O’Malley at the opening of a Japan Baseball Hall of Fame exhibition about the O’Malley family’s connections with Japanese baseball. ³