What's up around the Prime Minister


Friday, September 1, 2000
Prime Minister Takes Part in Disaster Prevention Day Drills

As part of Disaster Prevention Day observances the government held a comprehensive disaster-prevention drill based on the assumption of a major earthquake in the Tokai region. At 8:00 A.M. the Director General of the Meteorological Agency warned Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori of the imminent likelihood of a major earthquake in the Tokai region. The Prime Minister immediately convened a meeting of relevant Cabinet ministers and circulated documents to all Cabinet ministers for approval. At about 8:30 he issued an earthquake warning and announced the establishment of an "earthquake disaster warning headquarters," and 10 minutes later he convened the first meeting of the headquarters, with all Cabinet members in attendance, in the Crisis Management Center in the Prime Minister's Official Residence. That afternoon the Prime Minister visited the site of a combined disaster prevention drill conducted by the governments of Tokyo and six surrounding prefectures in Hiratsuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture, on the assumption of a major earthquake directly beneath the southern Kanto region. After watching a disaster-control drill, he addressed the closing ceremony.

September 1 is designated Disaster Prevention Day in memory of the Great Kanto Earthquake, which assaulted Tokyo and its environs at noon on September 1, 1923.


Sunday, September 3, 2000
Prime Minister Observes Tokyo Comprehensive Disaster Prevention Drill

With the backing of the central government, the Tokyo metropolitan government held a comprehensive disaster prevention drill dubbed "Rescue Tokyo 2000" at 10 locations throughout the city. Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori took part in the drill as head of the Headquarters for Emergency Disaster Control. On the assumption that a major earthquake directly beneath the area of Tokyo's 23 wards had rendered the Prime Minister's Official Residence dysfunctional, a meeting of relevant Cabinet ministers was convened in the underground Central Command Post of the Defense Agency. Here Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori conferred by video linkup with Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara, who was in the Tokyo Metropolitan Disaster Prevention Center. Altogether about 25,000 people, including some 7,100 Self-Defense Forces personnel, took part in the drill. The Prime Minister later commented, "This was the first drill conducted jointly by the central government and a local government, and I was impressed by the excellent cooperation achieved."


Sunday, September 3-Tuesday, September 5, 2000
Prime Minister Meets with Russian President

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori met with President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation, who was on an official working visit to Japan. The two leaders engaged in substantive talks regarding a bilateral peace treaty. They agreed to continue with efforts to conclude a peace treaty on the basis of the Tokyo Declaration by the year 2000, in accordance with the Krasnoyarsk Agreement of 1997; to continue negotiations to produce a peace treaty, based on all the agreements reached so far, through solution of the issue of sovereignty over the islands of Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan, and Habomai; and to improve the efficiency of the negotiating process by taking more energetic steps to educate the public on the importance of a peace treaty. In addition to signing a statement incorporating these points, they signed a program to advance trade and economic cooperation between Japan and Russia and a joint statement on cooperation between Japan and Russia on international affairs expressing Russia's support for Japan's becoming a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.


6-8 September 2000
Prime Minister Mori at the UN Millennium Summit


Tuesday, September 12, 2000
Prime Minister Makes Videophone Call to Encourage Schoolchildren Raising Money for Nepal

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori talked with pupils of Sakuragaoka Elementary School, Fukaya City, Saitama Prefecture, encouraging them in their fund-raising campaign for Nepal. The "virtual meeting" grew out of a letter to the Prime Minister by sixth grader Hanako Takada in which she told him how children at her school had been voluntarily collecting aluminum cans to raise funds for school construction in Nepal. She decided to write to the Prime Minister when she heard that on his visit to Nepal in August he had announced government assistance for school construction in that country. The Prime Minister told the children, "What you are doing is admirable. When I met the Prime Minister of Nepal in New York I told him about it, and he was very happy."

Pupils at Sakuragaoka Elementary School began collecting aluminum cans to raise funds for building elementary schools in Nepal back in 1994, when a teacher at the school who had been mountaineering in Nepal told them that many Nepalese children could not go to school even if they wanted to, since they had no school to go to. As a result of negotiations with local authorities via a nongovernmental organization, the 1 million yen the pupils expect to raise by the end of fiscal 2000 (March 31, 2001) will be used to help finish the rebuilding of an elementary school about 15 kilometers north of the capital, Kathmandu.


Thursday, September 14, 2000
Prime Minister Observes Damage on Miyakejima, Niijima, and Kozushima

In the afternoon Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori flew to the three Izu Islands of Niijima, Miyakejima, and Kozushima by Self-Defense Force's helicopter to observe the damage done by volcanic activities on Miyakejima and successive earthquakes off Niijima and Kozushima and to encourage residents and those engaged in relief activities.


Friday, September 15, 2000
Prime Minister Encourages Schoolchildren from Miyakejima

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori visited Tokyo Metropolitan Akikawa Senior High School, Akiruno City, Tokyo, a boarding school housing children evacuated from Miyakejima because of persistent volcanic activity, to encourage them. Arriving at the school a little after 7:00 A.M., the Prime Minister shared breakfast with the children, who had been separated from their families since being evacuated at the end of August, and chatted with them.


Friday, September 15, 2000
Prime Minister Observes Personal Computer Class for Older People and Attends a Gathering to Celebrate Senior Citizens

On Respect for the Aged Day Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori observed a personal computer class by older people for older people at Mitaka Industrial Plaza, Mitaka City, Tokyo. He also used a computer himself, talking with his granddaughter Reiko, who was at home, through an audio and video connection over the Internet. He then addressed a gathering to celebrate senior citizens, organized by the Mitaka City Council of Social Welfare and held at the Mitaka Public Hall.


Tuesday, September 19, 2000
Prime Minister Observes Futuristic Dwelling Utilizing Fruits of IT Revolution

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori visited the multimedia center of a major consumer electronics company in Tokyo, where he observed and tried out the features of a new type of dwelling utilizing the fruits of the information technology revolution.

Digital television will enable interactive shopping, use of e-mail, and the replay of stored digital data. (Satellite digital broadcasts in Japan will begin in December 2000. Terrestrial TV broadcasting is expected to be digital in the three major urban centers--Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka--in 2003, and throughout the nation by the end of 2006.)

A display at the multimedia center demonstrated a new type of dwelling envisioned for the year 2003 that was equipped with appliances and other features utilizing IT advances throughout: in the living room, bedroom, and even bathroom. From the living room one could make reservations at public facilities, register as a resident and use other local-government services, and buy tickets. The Prime Minister was shown how to make reservations for overseas travel.


Thursday, September 21, 2000
Prime Minister Delivers Policy Speech at Opening of 150th Session of the Diet

Upon the opening of the 150th session of the National Diet Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori delivered a policy speech to both houses of the legislature. He pronounced an information-technology strategy, the "e-Japan" initiative, the most important pillar of the "rebirth of Japan." He stated that he would "promptly formulate a national IT strategy for realizing a 'Japanese IT society,'" which he defined as "a society in which all people can share information and knowledge on the basis of digital information and freely exchange that information." Declaring that "guiding the IT revolution to success also hinges upon each and every individual taking a leading role in the net, imparting new knowledge and devising new mechanisms," he pledged to "launch the largest ever national movement to ensure that people nationwide are capable of using the Internet."


Friday, September 22, 2000
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pays Courtesy Call on Prime Minister

William S. Cohen, United States Secretary of Defense, paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori at the Prime Minister's Official Residence. The two discussed Japan-U.S. security relations and the international situation. The Prime Minister expressed thanks to Secretary Cohen for the leadership he had shown in setting the direction of post-cold-war Japan-U.S. security arrangements, including review of the Guidelines for Japan-U.S. Defense Cooperation, and said that Japan would continue to maintain and strengthen the Japan-U.S. alliance in the next century for the sake of the security of Japan and the peace and security of the Asia-Pacific region. In regard to the situation on the Korean Peninsula, the Prime Minister affirmed the importance of three-way cooperation among Japan, the United States, and the Republic of Korea and said that the three countries' good cooperative relationship had encouraged action on the part of North Korea. He added that although North Korea had made separate overtures to both Japan and the United States, he believed that North Korea understood the close cooperation among Japan, the United States, and the Republic of Korea. Secretary Cohen agreed on the continuing importance of tripartite cooperation.


Friday, September 22, 2000
National Commission for Educational Reform Submits Interim Report to Prime Minister

The National Commission for Educational Reform, established in March this year and chaired by Reona Esaki, President of the Shibaura Institute of Technology, submitted an interim report to Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori. The report contained 17 proposals for changing education, focusing on four areas: development of Japanese imbued with humanistic qualities, development of Japanese full of creativity through the encouragement of individual talent, creation of new types of schools for a new age, and a basic plan to promote education and the Fundamental Law of Education. Next the commission will canvass people on their views of the interim report, engage in further deliberation, and compile its final report.


23-24 September, 2000
Japan-Republic of Korea Summit Meeting(Atami, 23-24 September 2000)


Tuesday, September 26, 2000
Council for Gender Equality Submits Report to Prime Minister

The Council for Gender Equality, an advisory body to the Prime Minister chaired by Sumiko Iwao, Professor at the Musashi Institute of Technology and Professor Emeritus of Keio University, delivered a report to Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori. The report, "Fundamental Thinking Regarding a Basic Plan for Gender Equality: Major Issues for the Twenty-first Century," represented the results of surveys and deliberations regarding the task with which the council had been charged in August 1999, to define basic policy directions for promoting the formation of a gender-equal society based on the Basic Law for a Gender-Equal Society.

The report is divided into two parts: "Basic Approach to the Realization of a Gender-Equal Society" and "Basic Policy Directions for the Future and Specific Initiatives." Part two enunciates "viewpoints" and "specific initiatives" with regard to three subjects: future initiatives in response to changes since the 1996 report "Vision of Gender Equality," establishment of individual dignity, and provision and consolidation of systems to promote gender equality.

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