Instead, spectators were treated to Daniel Baldwin, ex-NBA player John Salley and Kato Kaelin.
Even the LDP leaders who humiliated Kato know they barely squeaked through this conflict.
Then, just hours before the vote's scheduled start on Nov. 20, Kato blinked, and merely abstained.
But if Kato lost the battle, his fight may have helped accelerate changes on the battlefield.
Another way in which companies reduce profits, says Mr Kato, is to transfer them to smaller subsidiaries.
Former Simpson house guest Kato Kaelin will apparently return to the witness stand despite objections by plaintiffs' lawyers.
Shigeharu Kato stressed the importance of good partnership with UNESCO, particularly in the field of Disaster Risk Reduction.
The murdered gay Ugandan activist David Kato, 42, is remembered by friends and colleagues as loud and proud.
Kato's views advocating small government and deregulation are more in line with those of high-tech industries competing globally.
Mr Kato knows that this is the prize, and the proposed reforms are too faint-hearted to win it.
In 2011, activist David Kato was beaten to death but police denied this was related to his sexuality.
But Mr Kato may soon use Nobuteru Ishihara's group to press his own case for being made prime minister.
Kato's revolt was also a battle over who the LDP wants to represent.
"They were not tested in the way they are being used, " says Norman Kato, a cardiac surgeon from Encino, Calif.
Mr Kato was relegated to the sidelines by Mr Obuchi for having the temerity to challenge him for the leadership.
If Mr Kato is one day to serve as prime minister, he needs a big job in the cabinet now.
There were two reasons for the Toyota union's decision, says Yuji Kato, president of the Confederation of Japan Automobile Workers' Union.
ECONOMIST: Deflation is transforming Japan's annual pay rituals
Kato Koichi will quickly blame the loss on popular dissatisfaction with the coalition and try to replace him as prime minister.
With Mr Kato in the political wilderness, the best reformist hope is Junichiro Koizumi, a former minister of health and welfare.
They discovered a mummified body, believed to be Kato, lying in his bed, wearing underwear and pyjamas, covered with a blanket.
Though Mr Hashimoto himself may have little difficulty remaining as party leader, his deputy, Koichi Kato, is itching for a change.
If he had voted against Mori as he promised, Kato would have lost, but he might have been a defeated hero.
They are Ikuo Uno, an executive advisor at Nippon Life Insurance Company and Haruhiko Kato, president of the Japan Securities Depository Center.
Welfare officials had tried to meet Mr Kato since early this year.
Kato Koichi, 61, had long been seen as a future prime minister.
On his return, David Kato felt galvanised by his time in South Africa, where until the end of apartheid homosexuality had been banned.
The recent weaker yen, which will make Sony products cheaper abroad, was almost certain to work as a big plus, and Kato welcomed it.
But Mr Kato, a former diplomat, is not a minister and lacks experience in a heavyweight cabinet job such as foreign affairs or finance.
Mr Kato also called on the government to "step up the pace of structural reforms, " and to complete a regulatory framework for commercial banks.
"We've been betrayed by the LDP again, and by Mr. Kato who I'd trusted until now, " said one message on a pro-Kato Internet website.
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