On February 20th, at the Nikkei Hall in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, the ILC Club gave a speech at the Nikkei Forum Symposium on revitalizing the regions outside of Tokyo (Host: The Nikkei/Japan Economics Newspaper). The ILC Club is made up of middle school students of Iwate and is run by the Iwate Nippo newspaper as part of their IWATE ILC 2030 PROJECT, and at the forum, they talked about how to revitalize regional areas through the ILC.

Four out of the five members attended*. Together with Prof. Satoru Yamashita (specially-appointed professor University of Tokyo ICEPP), who gave the keynote speech on the ILC project and regional revitalization, the middle school students gave a cheerful presentation on their studies thus far. They also said that if the ILC is built in Tohoku, it will lead to the revitalization of aging hometowns and the areas affected by the 3.11 disaster.

Satoko Yoshida, a company worker attending from Koto-ku, Tokyo, said, “The students of the ILC Club were very excited, and I was impressed by how much they studied and how responsible they were. I didn’t know anything about the ILC, but I think it’s a project that will lead to regional revitalization,” she said, showing growing interest in the ILC thanks to the students’ presentation. Shinichi Ito, a company worker from Yokohama City, looked towards the future: “Knowledge from around the world will gather in the area thanks to the ILC, and we can expect developments in that field. The middle school students were serious about their studies, and their experience abroad will be a resource in the future.”

The Nikkei Forum Symposium was held on regional revitalization through public-private partnerships and regional cooperation. Around 600 people attended from local governments and fields like construction and communications. Experts gave presentations on tourism, regional energy systems, new industry creation, business revitalization and other fields, as well as debated what to do to solve issues like the greying of society and shrinking population.

*ILC Club Members:
Yume Ishikawa (1st year at Takizawa Minami MS, Takizawa City),
Momoyo Sugawara (3rd year at Mizusawa MS, Oshu City),
Mayuko Yamamoto (2nd year at Kamaishi MS, Kamaishi City),
Kotomi Sato (2nd year at Hanaizumi MS, Ichinoseki City),
Go Hatakeyama (2nd year at Kuroishino MS, Morioka City)