PURPOSE: To improve the efficiency of a communication by adding procedure information specifying a procedure to be followed at a reception node to a message to be sent, prompting a receiver to perform a process that a sender intends, and following the procedure at the reception node.

CONSTITUTION: This electronic mail system is equipped with a user interface 7 which inputs and outputs the message, and adds the procedure information specifying the procedure to be followed at the reception node and header information showing whether or not the procedure information is included to generate a message, a distribution program 8 which distributes the message from a transmission node to the reception node, a header analytic part 10 which checks whether or not there is the procedure information by analyzing the header information of the message, a mail decomposition part 11 which extracts the header information and procedure information from the message, and a procedure analytic part 12 which checks whether or not the procedure can be executed at the reception node, and a procedure execution part 13 which executes the procedure specified in a procedure part.