Japan’s High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK, in Tsukuba City, Ibaraki Prefecture), stated on April 3rd that it intends to establish a working group made up of Japanese, American, and European researchers in order to debate how to share the ILC costs internationally, and overcome technical challenges. They plan to begin debates in May, and submit a report to the Ministry of Science (MEXT) in September.

This was explained by Director-General Masanori Yamauchi at the general meeting of the Federation of Diet Members for the ILC, a non-partisan group of national level politicians who support the ILC (chair: Hon. Takeo Kawamura of the House of Representatives).

The working group will consist of two Japanese, two North Americans, two Europeans, and one person from an Asian country outside of Japan. They will discuss how to overcome technical issues with the experimental devices, how to run the ILC organization, as well as ways for member countries to share the costs of construction and operations. They plan to put together a report by September.

The Japanese government will be moving towards making a decision on the ILC after taking into account the Science Council of Japan’s new Master Plan (an outline of major scientific projects released every few years) and Europe’s next particle physics strategy. Cost-sharing is a huge issue, and Director-General Yamauchi said, “We hope to gain understanding of the ILC from a wide variety of fields, including the whole of academia.”

At the FDMILC’s general meeting, officials also explained the Cabinet Office’s “Moonshot Research Development System,” a system the government has implemented to aim for more ambitious types of research. Hon. Ryu Shionoya, secretary-general of the FDMILC, talked about their activities going forward. “The FDMILC would like to sit down to talk with France and Germany. We will forge ahead positively to gain the support of the people of Japan.”