, nicknamed , was a Japanese record producer, songwriter, and singer. He sometimes used the spelling of "Kazuhiko Katoh".

As a member of the Folk Crusaders

The Folk Crusaders

The Folk Crusaders was a Japanese pop music group, popular in Japan in the later half of the 1960s.The band was formed in 1965 by the five university students Kazuhiko Katō, Osamu Kitayama, Yoshio Hiranuma , Mikio Inomura and Maki Ashida , but Ashida and Inomura left the band at an early stage...

, Kato launched his recording career in the mid 1960s. "Kaettekita Yopparai (I Only Live Twice)", their psychedelic debut song composed by Kato and released in 1967, sold more than 1.3 million copies in Japan, and became one of the best-selling singles of the early Japanese popular music industry. The group also starred in director Nagisa Oshima

Nagisa Oshima

is a Japanese film director and screenwriter. After graduating from Kyoto University he was hired by Shochiku Ltd. and quickly progressed to directing his own movies, making his debut feature A Town of Love and Hope in 1959....

's 1968 film "Kaette kita yopparai" (alternately known as "Sinner in Paradise" or "Three Resurrected Drunkards").

After the breakup of Folk Crusaders in 1970, Kato gained success for his production works for other musicians, including Shigeru Izumiya

Shigeru Izumiya

Shigeru Izumiya is a Japanese poet, folk singer, actor, tarento. He established record company "For Life Records" with Takuro Yoshida, Yosui Inoue, Hitoshi Komuro in 1975...

, Mariya Takeuchi

Mariya Takeuchi

is a Japanese singer-songwriter.Takeuchi was born in Taisha city in the Hikawa district of Shimane Prefecture. She spent a year studying in the United States while she was at high school. Her musical career started in 1978 while she was studying at Keio University, with the single "Modotte-Oide,...

, and Takuro Yoshida

Takuro Yoshida

is a Japanese male singer-songwriter. He was born on April 5, 1946 in Okuchi, Kagoshima and raised in Hiroshima. He made his debut with the single "Imeji no Uta / Maku II" on June 1, 1970...

. In particular, Sadistic Mika Band

Sadistic Mika Band

was a Japanese rock group formed in 1972. Its name is a parody of the "Plastic Ono Band". Produced by Masatoshi Hashiba on Toshiba-EMI Records , the band was led by the then husband and wife team of guitarist Kazuhiko Kato, and his wife, singer Mika Fukui...

, the acclaimed project he started with his first wife Mika Fukui, received international success. Their 1974 album entitled Kurofune (The Black Ship) is regarded as one of the most significant Japanese rock albums of the mid 1970s. The group was disbanded and reassembled again several times, with new vocalists such as Yumi Matsutoya

Yumi Matsutoya

', nicknamed , is an influential Japanese singer, composer, lyricist and pianist. She is renowned for her idiosyncratic voice, and live performances, and is an important figure in Japanese popular music....

, Karen Kirishima, and Kaela Kimura

Kaela Kimura

, born , is a Japanese pop rock singer, songwriter, model, and TV presenter.- Career :Born in Adachi, Tokyo, Japan to a British father and Japanese mother, Kaela started working as a model in 2002 for the Japanese magazine Seventeen...

.

As a composer, Kato created the theme song "Ai Oboetei Imasu ka" for the movie The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love?

The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love?

, also known as The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? or Super Spacefortress Macross , is a 1984 Japanese animated movie based around the Macross television series.The movie is a film adaptation of the original Macross series, with new animation...

released during the summer of 1984 in Japan. He later formed a songwriting team with his second wife, the late Kazumi Yasui. Most of the songs they wrote were recorded and produced by Kenji Sawada

Kenji Sawada

, nicknamed "Julie" , also-known as vocalist for the Japanese rock band The Tigers, is a Japanese singer, composer, lyricist and actor. He was born in Tsunoi, Iwami , Tottori Prefecture, Japan, and raised in Sakyo-ku, Kyoto at age 3...

. In 1990, Kato teamed up with graphic artists, Haruhiko Shono

Haruhiko Shono

is a Japanese computer graphics artist. He has served as director for numerous computer games and has provided CG work for motion pictures with , where he serves as corporate representative...

 and Kuniyoshi Kaneko, to provide the music for the award-winning Japanese computer game, Alice

Alice: An Interactive Museum

Alice: Interactive Museum is a 1991 click-and-go adventure game, the elements and idea of which were much inspired by Lewis Carrol's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It was designed for Windows 3.x and later released for the Windows 95 platform. The game was developed by Toshiba-EMI Ltd and was...

.

In March 2008, Kato formed the rock band Vitamin-Q with Masami Tsuchiya

Masami Tsuchiya

Masami Tsuchiya is a Japanese singer-songwriter and musician. He came to prominence in the late 1970s as the lead vocalist and guitarist in the group Ippu-Do. His subsequent output includes solo work and collaborations...

, Gota Yashiki

Gota Yashiki

Gota Yashiki is both an independent acid jazz artist and drum player, as a member of the band Simply Red. He was born in Kyoto, Japan, on 26 February 1962, where at a young age he learned how to play traditional Japanese drums. This interest in drumming propelled him into the music scene, and he...

, Rei Ohara and Anza.

Kato committed suicide by hanging on October 17, 2009 at a hotel in Karuizawa

Karuizawa, Nagano

is a town located in Kitasaku District, Nagano, Japan.As of January 1, 2008, the town has an estimated population of 17,833 and has a total area of ....

, Kitasaku District, Nagano Prefecture

Nagano Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of the island of Honshū. The capital is the city of Nagano.- History :Nagano was formerly known as the province of Shinano...

, Japan. Police discovered a suicide note

Suicide note

A suicide note or death note is a message that states the author has died by suicide, and left to be discovered and read in anticipation of suicide....

 in his hotel room.

Albums

(Titles in brackets are for rough translation purposes only)

• ぼくのそばにおいでよ (Come Near Me)（1969）
• スーパー・ガス (Super Gas)（1971）
• それから先のことは (Then What Lies Ahead)（1976）
• ガーディニア (Gadinia)（1978）
• パパ・ヘミングウェイ (Hemingway Papa)（1979）
• うたかたのオペラ (Opera in the short-lived)（1980） (Better known as "L'opéra fragile")
• ベル・エキセントリック (Belle Excentrique)（1981）
• あの頃、マリー・ローランサン (Around Her, Marie Laurencin)（1983）
• ヴェネチア (Venice)（1984）
• マルタの鷹 (The Maltese Falcon)（1987）
• ボレロ・カリフォルニア (California Bolero)（1991）