Thirteen ILC-related organizations (including Japan’s High Energy Accelerator Research Organization – KEK – in Tsukuba City, Ibaraki Prefecture) will work together to hold an international symposium led by Nobel Prize Laureates in Tokyo on February 8, 2020. This symposium will serve to encourage a boost of enthusiasm from all of Japan in the project, which is vital for this important time, as the Japanese central government is currently debating whether or not to host the ILC.

Peter Higgs, the Nobel Prize-winning English physicist who predicted the existence of the Higgs boson, will be giving a seminar through a broadcast from Europe. Another Nobel Prize winner, special Professor Emeritus Kobayashi Makoto of KEK, will be at the venue to talk about the importance of particle physics research and the realization of the ILC.

Prof. Kobayashi and Prof. Komamiya Sachio of Waseda University are also planned to have a public debate with Prof. Murayama Hitoshi of UC Berkeley.

The leading candidate site for the ILC (which will explore the inner workings of the recently discovered Higgs boson) is the Kitakami mountains of Iwate Prefecture. The scientific community of the USA and Europe has strongly called on Japan to decide on the project, and the central government is currently deliberating on what to do with the ILC.

Director Okada Yasuhiro of KEK said, “We need the understanding and cooperation of many people in order to get the Japanese central government to accept the ILC. (At this symposium), we will have these scientists, who have left an indelible mark on the history of particle physics, talk about the importance of the project to get young people interested in the ILC.”

The event will be held from 15:30 on February 8, at the Ito International Research Center at Tokyo University. Admission is free.