is a former

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player. He played for the Japan national team.

Club career

Kato was born in

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region, the fourth-most populous city and third most populous urban area in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020. Located on the Pacific coast in central Honshu, it is the capital and the most pop ...

on December 22, 1958. After graduating from

Hosei University is a private university based in Tokyo, Japan. The university originated in a school of law, Tōkyō Hōgakusha (, i.e. Tokyo association of law), established in 1880, and the following year renamed Tōkyō Hōgakkō (, i.e. Tokyo school of law ...

, he joined the

Japan Soccer League , or JSL, was the top flight association football league in Japan between 1965 and 1992, and was the precursor to the current professional league, the J.League. JSL was the second national league of a team sport in Japan after the professional ...

's Division 2 club

Toshiba , commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure system ...

in 1981. The club won the

1981 JSL Cup Statistics of JSL Cup in the 1981 season. Overview It was contested by 20 teams, and Toshiba and Mitsubishi Motors won the championship. Results 1st Round *Honda 3-0 Tanabe Pharmaceuticals *Toshiba 2-1 Sumitomo Metals * Yomiuri 1-2 Nippon Kok ...

. However, he left the club due to an injury in 1983. In 1985, he joined the Division 1 club

All Nippon Airways , also known as ANA (''Ē-enu-ē'') or is an airline in Japan. Its headquarters are located in Shiodome City Center in the Shiodome area of Minato ward of Tokyo. It operates services to both domestic and international destinations and had mo ...

National team career

On August 30, 1981, Kato debuted for Japan national team against

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

. On September 3, he scored a goal against

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. He played 3 games and scored 1 goal for Japan in 1981.Japan National Football Team Database
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National team statistics

References

External links

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1958 births Living people Hosei University alumni Association football people from Aichi Prefecture Japanese footballers Japan international footballers Japan Soccer League players Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo players Yokohama Flügels players Association football midfielders Association football forwards {{Japan-footy-midfielder-1950s-stub