The non-partisan Federation of Diet Members for the ILC (FDMILC, Chair: Hon. Takeo Kawamura of the House of Representatives) and related organizations in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP, Japan’s leading political party) came together on September 18th to form a Liaison Council for the ILC. They will strengthen efforts to encourage the national government to position the ILC as a promising national project.
They held their first meeting at LDP headquarters in Nagatacho, Tokyo, with Hon. Toshihiro Nikai (Secretary-general of the LDP), Hon. Fukushiro Nukaga (Chair of the Headquarters for Accelerating the Reconstruction from the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami), Hon. Akira Amari (Chair of Strategic Research Group on Intellectual Property), Hon. Kisaburo Tokai (Chair of Strategic Research Group on Science, Technology, and Innovation), Hon. Ryu Shinoya (Secretary-general of the FDMILC), Hon. Hiroyuki Hosoda (Chair of Non-partisan Science and Technology Group), Hon. Shunichi Suzuki (Minister of the Olympics and Paralympic Games; Iwate 2nd district) and others in attendance.
They adopted the following two resolutions on the ILC.
▽Position the ILC as a national project and have the various ministries work on it together in order to solve lots of different national issues
▽Allocate a separate budget for the ILC aside from the normal budget for science & technology/academia/university funds
They intend to hand this to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and others.
According to the head of their secretariat, the Liaison Council will be situated as an LDP organization. Hon. Hiroya Masuda (former Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications) and other outside experts will also attend.
Should the national government decide to host the ILC, then that will make it very likely that it will become a reality. This new organization is full of powerful members of the LDP who back the ILC, which should give it a good degree of negotiation power. Hon. Kawamura, who was selected as head of the council, said, “Researchers from around the world are waiting for a positive show of intent from the Japanese government within the year.” Secretary-general Nikai said, “I hope to make this a reality as a project that can contribute to Japan’s long-term growth following the Tokyo Olympics.”