Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori visited a middle school in Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture, to observe education using information technology(IT). Chiba Municipal Utase Middle School (principal: Mr.Michio Ishihara) is offering pioneering education using computers. The Prime Minister observed a first-year art class. He joined the students in drawing a picture on a computer monitor and sending it to a large-scale monitor by wireless transmission. He encouraged the students, telling them that IT skills would be increasingly important in the twenty-first century as the IT revolution progressed and that dealing with the so-called digital divide was an issue that needed to be addressed.

IT, and the digital divide, is on the agenda of the July G8 Kyushu-Okinawa Summit. Meanwhile, the incorporation of IT in education is part of the Government's "Millennium Project," which aims at providing all public elementary and secondary schools with access to the Internet by fiscal 2001 (April 2001-March 2002) and creating environment where teachers and students of all grades can use computers in all classes by fiscal 2005.

Before his visit the Prime Minister had sent the school a private e-mail message from his office in the Prime Minister's Official Residence. The day after the prime ministerial visit the Utase Middle School students who had talked with the Prime Minister sent a return e-mail message recording their joy, excitement, and impressions .