A Meeting of Mayors of Ichinoseki City, Tome City, Kurihara City, and Hiraizumi Town was held on July 24th at the Epoca 21 facility in Shiwahime, Kurihara City in Miyagi Prefecture. There, they reaffirmed their desire to strengthen their partnership in hopes of the ILC, which would be sited in the Kitakami mountains that straddle Iwate and Miyagi prefectures.

Osamu Katsube, mayor of Ichinoseki, and Yukio Aoki, mayor of Hiraizumi, attended the meeting with Morihiro Kumagai, Mayor of Tome, and Kenji Chiba, mayor of Kurihara, who both won their elections in April. Mayor Katsube said, “If the ILC is realized, it will have a large effect on local businesses. We must quickly figure out what is needed for local businesses to get involved.”

Mayor Kumagai said, “More and more local businesses have an interest in the ILC. I hope we can learn together as one region.” Mayor Chiba said, “The ILC, if realized, would have a large impact. I hope we can develop our ILC initiatives together.”

This meeting of mayors of municipalities on the borders of Iwate and Miyagi started in 2015 with the three cities, and Hiraizumi joined in 2016.