On July 25, the city councils of seven cities surrounding the ILC candidate site joined together to urge cooperation on the ILC to Hon. Takeo Kawamura (head of the Federation of Diet Members for the ILC, FDMILC), the Ministry of Education, Sports, Culture, Science and Technology (MEXT), and to other Diet members with ties to Iwate Prefecture. This is the first time these seven councils have joined together to do any sort of formal petitioning.

Eighteen city council members participated from Ichinoseki City, Oshu City, Ofunato City, Rikuzentakata City, Sumita Town, Kanegasaki Town, and Hiraizumi Town. The petition was mutually signed by the seven councils, the Federation of Oshu City Council Members for the ILC, and the Federation of Kesen Area City Council Members for the ILC. They handed this directly to Hon. Kawamura.

Chair of the Federation of Oshu City Council Members for the ILC, Tadashi Watanabe, stated, “We are proactively working in each area to bring about the ILC.” To that, Hon. Kawamura responded, “We feel the same way. I hope to get a quick decision from the national government.”