Iwate Governor Takuya Tasso and other Iwate officials visited with national Diet members of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) on August 8th to encourage a positive decision on the ILC from the national government within the year. Secretary-general Hon. Toshihiro Nikai responded, “We hope to work hard as a political party (for the ILC).”

Gov. Tasso joined with Atsuto Suzuki (Iwate Prefectural University President) and Kunihisa Yamura (Iwate ILC Promotion Council Chief) to visitwith Hon. Nikai at the LDP Headquarters in Nagata-cho, Tokyo. They also met with Hon. Takeo Kawamura, chief of the LDP Headquarters for Regional Development. They handed over a petition signed by themselves plus Hon. Shunichi Suzuki, minister of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games (House of Representatives, Iwate 2nd district).

Gov. Tasso asked for their cooperation, saying, “We in the region surrounding the ILC candidate site have been making preparations, so I would like you to make a decision on hosting the ILC within the year.” Chief Yamura talked about the Iwate ILC Promotion Council’s independent calculations of the ILC’s economic effects, which would be “5.7190 trillion yen over 20 years” starting from the construction phase.

The meeting was partially closed to the media, but according to attendees, Hon. Nikai responded, “We hope to work hard as a political party (for the ILC).”

In other ILC news, Hon. Kawamura, who is also chair of the non-partisan Federation of Diet Members for the ILC, will be starting a Liaison Council for the ILC this month, which will include related organizations within the LDP. Hon. Hiroyuki Hosoda, head of the LDP’s non-partisan Science and Technology Group, and Hon. Akira Amari, head of the LDP’s Strategic Group on Intellectual Property, are slated to the be members of the Council, so the Iwate group also visited with them to urge them to bring about the ILC.