On January 23rd, the Tohoku ILC Planning Office (Director: Prof. Atsuto Suzuki) reported back on their January trip to Europe to a number of media outlets in Sendai. The Federation of Diet Members for the ILC (FDMILC), government officials, industry representatives, and researchers intend to visit Europe again in May in order to proceed with talks on getting international cooperation on the ILC.

The report was given by Prof. Suzuki as well as office fellow, specially-appointed Professor Satoru Yamashita of the International Center for Elementary Particle Physics of the University of Tokyo. Prof. Yamashita talked about their recent trip: “The ILC project was explained to influential parliament members and top level government officials of France and Germany. We also decided on who would be in charge of relations between Japan-France-Germany and their respective governments, industries, and researchers. We now have a large opening into starting talks with more of Europe.”

There were questions from the France-German side about the timeline of the ILC, to which Secretary-General of the FDMILC, Hon. Ryu Shionoya, explained, “We will have a definite idea by the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and we hope that construction on the ILC will have started by the 2024 Paris Olympics.”

In order to have more talks on international cooperation with the rest of Europe, Prof. Yamashita said, “Industry and academic officials will visit in March to prepare for a meeting with Spain and the U.K. During the May holiday (Golden Week in Japan), we will have a second trip to Europe by the national/local government officials, industry representatives, politicians, and researchers, where we hope to proceed with talks for the ILC.”