Yoshiro Mori took office as Japan's Prime Minister and formed his Cabinet on April 5, 2000. He was designated Prime Minister by the Diet that afternoon, and with the ceremony of imperial investiture at the Imperial Palace that night he became Japan's eighty-fifth Prime Minister (the fifty-fifth person) since Hirobumi Ito in 1885.

Taking over after Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi was taken with illness, Prime Minister Mori has inherited the many problems facing Japan and is concentrating all his powers on achieving what he calls the "rebirth of Japan." Upon returning from the Imperial Palace to the Prime Minister's official residence after the investiture ceremony and the attestation ceremony for Ministers of State, he started energetically the task of running the country, convening the first meeting of his Cabinet and then holding a press conference.

On April 7 Prime Minister Mori delivered a policy speech at plenary sittings of both Houses of the Diet. Proclaiming the credo of "government that steps with the people and is trusted by the people," he declared that his Cabinet would devote itself to the "rebirth of Japan," aiming to make Japan "a nation of people who live in security embracing dreams for the future," "a nation of beauty rich in spirit," and "a nation that engenders the trust of the world."