The Science Council of Japan has set up a committee to deliberate on the revised ILC plan (Chair: Yasuhiro Iye, Director of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science), and they met for their 2nd meeting on August 21st in Tokyo. There, they debated about the management structure of the ILC, how to secure human resources, and how to divvy up the costs internationally.

Nine members were in attendance. Serving as references were Masanori Yamauchi, director-general of the KEK particle physics lab, and Shoken Miyama, specially-appointed professor at the President’s Office of Hiroshima University. They explained the predicted schedule for the project, and how the costs would be divvied up between nations. According to Director-general Yamauchi, the current consensus of researchers is that the host country would take on 50% or more of the costs of hosting the ILC.

One member said, “We face a limited national budget, so how much can we really spend on science?” Chair Iye said, “It’s hard to make a decision on the ILC, because the fundamental issues we have with the project have not really been solved.” Mr. Miyama responded, “The dilemma is that the project specifics can’t be determined until a country says they will host it. Japan showing its hand will have a huge effect (on this issue).”

Also handed out to the members was a statement of opposition to the project provided by a group of Ichinoseki City residents who call themselves “The Association Thinking About the ILC.”

After the meeting, Chair Iye said, “We still worry about what the ILC will be doing after the Higgs particle experiments are done, as well as whether we can really get a budget or the human resources necessary.” They will continue to meet with the experts for more reference information going forward.

Their next meeting will be on August 29th.