Deputy Vice-Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry

Kataoka Koichiro

Mr. Kataoka Koichiro has served as Deputy Vice-Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) since July 2024. He oversees budgets, personnel affairs, and digital transformation at METI. Mr. Kataoka is instrumental in planning, designing and implementing METI’s policies in these areas.

Since joining METI, Mr. Kataoka has held several senior posts. They have included Director of the Economic and Industrial Policy Division in the Economic and Industrial Policy Bureau, Director of the Electricity Market Division in the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy's Electricity and Gas Industry Department, and Executive Secretary to the Minister of METI.

In the Electricity and Gas Industry Department, he was involved in the electricity system reform and the review of the raising of electricity rates by power companies after the Great East Japan Earthquake. As the Director of the Personnel Division of the Minister's Secretariat, he worked on reforming METI human resources policies.

Most recently, as Director-General, Fukushima Reconstruction Promotion Group, he was responsible for reactor decommissioning and contaminated water management, as well as reconstruction support and industrial development in the affected areas.

A graduate of Kyoto University’s Faculty of Law, Mr. Kataoka holds a Master in Public Policy degree from Princeton University in the United States.

He was born in Kyoto on May 9, 1969.