On November 18th, the MEXT ILC panel of experts established a new working group for training and securing human resources, which held its first meeting on the same day. The working group has eleven members and is headed by Osaka University Research Center for Nuclear Physics Director Takashi Nakano. The human resources working group is expected to meet four to five more times, discussing the prospects for training researcher and engineers/technicians and release a draft report in spring next year at the earliest.

For the first meeting, working group members and MEXT representatives attended as Akira Yamamoto, Professor at KEK, reported on the outlook for necessary human resources. He explained that an average of 1000 people per year would be needed from within and without Japan for the ILC`s construction and operation including research, technology, management, and outsourcing.

The working group is composed of members such as university and business researchers, and will consider from an expert`s viewpoint measures for securing and training the human resources from each country necessary for the ILC`s construction, operation, management and parts manufacturing.

The Japanese government`s decision on the ILC is expected to take place in 2017 or 2018 based on factors such as discussions by the MEXT panel of experts and worldwide research trends. The panel of experts has a particle physics working group and technical design report working group, and set up the new human resources working group based on previous discussions.