Hon. Stefan Kaufmann of the German federal parliament (Bundestag) visited Iwate on October 30th to see the ILC candidate site in Daito-cho, Ichinoseki City. He also had a dialogue with Iwate Governor Takuya Tasso and Ichinoseki Mayor Osamu Katsube.

He looked at the Kitakami mountains from an area of rice plains in the Ohara district, while Iwate’s Senior Executive Director Hisashi Odaira talked about the plans for building a tunnel underground for the ILC. They then went to the Ohara Citizen’s Center to see the samples of granite taken in a geological survey.

Then, there was a closed dialogue session with Governor Tasso, who explained what the prefecture was doing to prepare for the project. Hon. Kaufmann, who has thus far served as an intermediary on the European side for the ILC, said, “We will cooperate as we head towards the fruition of the ILC.”

Also in attendance were Joachim Mnich (director at DESY, Germany) and Maxim Titov (CEA-Saclay, France).

After the visit, Hon. Kaufmann said, “I saw how strongly the people of Iwate want the ILC to become a reality. I hope that the Japanese national government makes a decision within the year.”