At a press conference on November 16th, Masahiko Shibayama, Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Education (MEXT), stated, “We will wait for a formal answer from the Science Council of Japan (SCJ) on their deliberations on the ILC. Then the national government will move forward towards the next step.”

An ILC Committee was created by the SCJ to deliberate on the revised plans for the ILC. They presented a draft of their findings at the November 14th meeting, in which they some had some tough feedback on the project, such as, “there is no outlook for international cost-sharing.”

Minister Shibayama said, “The debate at the ILC Committee is being done by researchers from a number of diverse fields, and we understand that will lead to many different opinions (on the ILC). MEXT will wait for the (final) formal answer from the Science Council of Japan before starting towards the next step.”