The “AAA Symposium 2015 in Tohoku,” hosted by organizations including the Iwate ILC Accelerator Science Promotion Council, was held at Z Hall in Mizusawa, Oshu on October 17th. Three experts gave lectures on the significance and positive consequences of the ILC, which is hoped to be attracted to the Kitakami mountain site. Many middle school students came to listen to the symposium, as well as those involved with attracting the ILC.
About 800 people attended. Effort was made to get middle schoolers and high schoolers to join so that leaders of future generations could hear about the importance of the ILC project, and there was a visible youthful presence mixed in with the adult residents in the audience. Figures included Oshu city mayor Masaki Ozawa, Ofunato mayor Kimiaki Toda, and Hiraizumi mayor Yukio Aoki also attended.
Preschoolers from Hidaka Nanatsuboshi and Hidaka Sakuraki in Mizusawa performed the Iwate National Sports Festival Dance, making for a relaxed start to the symposium. The auditorium filled with applause for the children`s energetic message: “Our dream for the future: ILC!”
The lecturers were:
▽Director General of KEK Masanori Yamauchi
▽Head of the Large Project Department at AAA and Associate Professor at Tokyo University Satoru Yamashita
▽Japan Policy Council Chairman and Iwate former governor Hiroya Masuda.
Director-General Yamauchi explained about the fundamentals of particle physics and the mysteries of the universe that researcher are trying to unravel. Dr. Yamashita introduced the structure of the ILC and reports of recent progress with the project.
Former Iwate governor Mr. Masuda noted that “If the ILC is built here, we will need to think about how the international researchers’ living environment: one failed example is Tsukuba, which was built as a science city. But there`s no need to be nervous: it just didn`t occur to them to integrate with the local community, and they built closed-off housing.” He pointed out that “We should use what`s already here, like modifying unoccupied houses a little, and move forward with the idea of integrating the researchers with the local community in mind. We could have volunteers for teaching Japanese to the researchers who could become go-betweens for researchers and locals.”
Shiho Sugawara (16), a first year from Mizusawa High School who came to listen, said, “[The talk about elementary particles] was a little hard. Because I heard that lots of foreign people were going to come to live here for the ILC, I thought that I would have to learn English, but it was refreshing to hear Mr. Masuda say that we didn`t need to be nervous.” First year student at Maesawa High School Shuya Suzuku (16) said that “I was interested in the parts about the universe. If I can, I want to work at the ILC.”