The Association of Citizens Who Strongly Support the Realization of the ILC (a private organization in the Ichinoseki region) held a rally for the ILC at the Ohara Citizens Center in Daito, Ichinoseki on May 24th. Daito is right in the middle of the Kitakami candidate site for the ILC. At the rally, they talked about what was being done to bring about the ILC, and also adopted a declaration, which they intend to send this next month to the national government and the Science Council of Japan to show how passionate the local citizens are for the ILC. The association will continue to strengthen their grassroots efforts.

This was the first rally to be held to show off the strong will of the local area, and around 400 residents were in attendance. Chairman Ohara of the Daito Regional ILC Committee talked about the activities to boost enthusiasm and understanding for the project that have been done with the local area. There was also a presentation on the ILC Learning Tool that has been installed permanently in the Daito Library, which was planned thanks to the seminars held by Japan’s High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK, Tsukuba City, Ibaraki Prefecture). It was also stated that they would be using translation software to aid further internationalization, in anticipation of more foreign researchers and tourists coming to the area.

The rally’s declaration was adopted as “The region will act as one to bring about the ILC.” They intend to strengthen this appeal to the rest of the country in the future. Koki Sato, chair of the association, said, “I feel the strong will of the local people to build the ILC. We will continue to do what we can as a private organization.”

On the same day, Prof. Satoru Yamashita (specially-appointed professor at the International Center for Elementary Particle Physics of the University of Tokyo) gave a seminar of the ILC. Prof. Yamashita explained that next year will see the Master Plan established by the Science Council of Japan, and the next European Strategy for Particle Physics (for 2020-2024). He said that this September would be a busy time period, as discussions for those new plans will start in earnest. “It is difficult to create a new thing, but let’s work together as one to bring about the ILC – commerce, academia, government, and the local people.”