At a press conference on November 17th, Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Yoshimasa Hayashi said that he had received the news that (the initial length of) the ILC would be shortened. He stated that the Panel of Experts of MEXT would continue to debate the ILC taking this into account.

The International Committee of Future Accelerators has decided to support the realization of the ILC with an initial length of 20km, rather than the original 30km. Mr. Hayashi opined: “I heard that this will reduce the construction costs of over 1 trillion yen. However, this is still a project that requires a massive investment. It cannot be realized by just one country; international cooperation is crucial.”

In response to ICFA’s statement that it encourages Japan to realize the ILC in a timely fashion, Mr. Hayashi said, “The Panel of Experts of MEXT will look over the modified ILC plan, and will continue to seriously deliberate the project, including the results of experiments being done at European research facilities. We are also thinking of asking the Science Council of Japan to once again carefully consider the project.”