Father of Four Tasked With Halting Japan's Population Decline
- Ex-finance ministry bureaucrat Kato given key cabinet role
- Abe aims to support families and help more people work
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Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is counting on his new minister for stemming Japan’s population decline to inspire imitators. He’s a father of four.
Katsunobu Kato, a 59-year-old former Finance Ministry official, was appointed Wednesday to a new cabinet post responsible for turning around Japan’s demographic descent. His task: reverse the nation’s sliding birthrate and stem a flow of people leaving the labor force to care for elderly relatives. Japan has the highest percentage of people age 65 or over of all the G-7 nations.