October 23, 2000 Creating Services Better Suited to Customer Needs and Building a More Open Infrastructure Sumitomo Marine and Mitsui Marine Group The Sumitomo Marine and Fire Insurance Co., Ltd. Mitsui Marine and Fire Insurance Co., Ltd. Nissay Group The Dowa Fire & Marine Insurance Co., Ltd. Nippon Life Insurance Company This is to announce that The Sumitomo Marine & Fire Insurance Co.,Ltd. (Hiroyuki Uemura, President), Mitsui Marine & Fire Insurance Co.,Ltd. (Takeo Inokuchi, President), Dowa Fire & Marine Insurance Co.,Ltd. (Shuichiro Sudo, President) and Nippon Life Insurance Company (Ikuo Uno, President) have reached an agreement today covering cooperation in creating services better suited to customer needs and building a more open infrastructure. I. Background and Content of Agreement II. Target Areas (Document 1) (Document 2) III. For the Near Term   IV. Overview of Companies Participating in the Join Project Group (as ofend of March 2000)