On June 12th, the Tohoku ILC Promotion Council, the Hokkaido/Tohoku Governors’ Association, the Hokkaido/Tohoku Prefectural Assembly Chairpersons’ Association, and the Tohoku Mayors’ Association visited with the Liberal Democratic Party (Japan’s ruling political party) to urge them to make their intentions known on the ILC as quickly as possible.

The group included Hiroaki Takahashi (honorary chairman of the Tohoku Economic Federation), Takuya Tasso (Governor of Iwate), Junichi Sasaki (Chair of the Iwate Prefectural Assembly), Hiroaki Tanifuji (Mayor of Morioka), Kunihisa Yamura (Chair of the Iwate ILC Promotion Council), Atsuto Suzuki (president of Iwate Prefectural University), and others. They visited the Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism (MLIT), and the Reconstruction Agency. There they met with Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga and others to petition for their support. They also handed over their petition to the Hon. Takeo Kawamura, chair of the Federation of Diet Members for the ILC, which was holding a general meeting in a Tokyo hotel.

According to those in attendance, Hon. Suga said, “I’d like to firmly accept your request.” Hon. Kawamura said, “I have accepted this letter as the consensus of all of Tohoku; I’d like to do my best to work towards the realization of the ILC.”

Following their petition, Governor Tasso said, “Within the government ministries, there are more and more who are looking favorably at this petition being made on behalf of the whole Tohoku region. I feel like this is the year where the decision will be made.” Mayor Tanifuji said, “I felt that we are now seeing results from all of the efforts being done from the national government and related ministries.” Mr. Hiroaki said, “I hope for the national government to clearly voice its intentions as quickly as possible.”