Tetsu Katayama

Tetsu Katayama (片山 哲, Katayama Tetsu; 28 July 1887 – 30 May 1978) was a Japanese politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1947 to 1948. He was the first socialist to serve as Japanese prime minister, and the last non-member of the Liberal Democratic Party or its forerunners to serve until 1993.

Born in Wakayama Prefecture, Katayama graduated in law from Tokyo Imperial University in 1912. He was strongly influenced by the Christian socialism of Abe Isoo, and in the 1920s served as a legal adviser to labor organizations and socialist political parties. He helped form the Social Democratic Party in 1926, and was elected to the Diet for the first time in 1930. In 1932, his party merged with the Shakai Taishūtō, which was dissolved in 1940. After the Pacific War, he became the secretary-general of the Japan Socialist Party. After the 1947 election, Katayama became prime minister, heading a coalition cabinet with members of the Democratic Party and National Cooperative Party. With the backing of occupation authorities, he helped implement a wide range of progressive social reforms, including the establishment of a labor ministry, but had insufficient political strength for more radical reforms such as wage and price controls, forcing him to resign in 1948. Katayama lost his Diet seat in 1949, although he remained a leading figure in his party's right wing throughout the 1950s. From 1960, he supported the newly-formed Democratic Socialist Party.