The Iwate Prefecture Promotion Council (Chair: Kunihisa Yamura, chair of the Federation of Iwate Prefecture Chambers of Commerce) held its top leadership meeting on June 8th in a hotel in Morioka City. This is an important as the Japanese government shall make a decision on whether or not to host the ILC, and the Council decided to proactively carry out its plans to share more information and formally request the government to make its decision.
Around 40 people were in attendance. Chair Yamura pledged, “Activities for the ILC around the country are ramping up, and this year will be an important year for the realization of the ILC. I will work with all of you to be completely prepared.”
As part of their plans, the Council will release a document in August they have prepared about the economic effects of the ILC. In September, they will hold a symposium in Morioka City to encourage further understanding of the ILC from the citizens of Iwate. They also plan to set up booths in both the Vacuum 2017 exhibition of semiconductor/medical technology (held in Yokohama City in September) and an international conference in France in October.
In July they will formally petition the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and other organizations, where they will ask for a quick decision on the ILC from the national government, as well as a progression in international negotiations and technological development.
Specially-appointed Professor Satoru Yamashita (International Center for Elementary Particle Physics at University of Tokyo) gave a presentation on the current status of the ILC project. He reported on the planning of the staging of the ILC, which would shrink the length of the first stage of the ILC from 31 km to 20 km in order to bring down initial costs. “Japan and the US are working together on research to improve the efficiency of the devices.”
The ILC is an international project that will seek to solve the mysteries of the origins of the universe. The Kitakami mountains of Iwate Prefecture are the leading candidate site for the project. The Japanese national government will be taking into account the deliberations done by a Panel of Experts as they make their decision on hosting the project sometime during this year to next year.