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.

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."

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.