Satsuki Katayama is Japan’s first female finance minister, and also one of the few in her job in recent decades that previously worked as an official at the powerful bureaucracy.
Katayama differs from most Japanese finance ministers this century whose careers before turning to politics were in areas such as private sector business, journalism or secretaries to politicians. She joined the Finance Ministry in 1982 and climbed the ranks, reaching a higher position in the influential Budget Bureau than any woman before her.
The new minister also has deep experience dealing with Japan’s financial industry, having worked on rescue plans for lenders in the late 1990s when the banking system was on the brink of collapse. That sort of job history will likely be of use as Japanese policymakers face critical challenges including overhauling the nation’s regional bank sector in the face of a shrinking, aging population.