This fiscal year, the Iwate Prefectural government designated two new schools to become ILC Promotion High Schools – Ofunato Higashi High School and Fukuoka High School. This will serve to height interest in the ILC among the young people who will inherit our future, and boost enthusiasm for the ILC.

Four schools have been ILC Promotion schools since 2017: Morioka #1 HS, Hanamaki Agricultural HS, Mizusawa HS, and Ichinoseki #1 HS. In 2018, two more schools were added: Mizusawa Engineering HS and Miyako Commercial HS. For the 2019 fiscal year, that number is now a total of eight. Ofunato Higashi will focus on teaching about the manufacture of parts that would be used in the ILC and making meals for foreign guests. Fukuoka HS will bring their students to visit research facilities at Iwate University and Hachinohe Engineering University, where they plan to do experiments.

The ILC Promotion Model School project is part of an initiative to cultivate human resources, and budget is allotted to support newly-designated schools with up to 500,000 yen, and continuing schools with around 750,000-1,000,000 yen.

This year is an important period for the ILC as work is being done to foster an environment where the national government can say yes to the ILC. Ayumi Ueno, director of ILC Promotion at the Iwate Prefectural ILC office, said, “We’re now seeing fellow model schools join together on initiatives. We will spread information on the ILC in order to get more people who would want to get involved in the ILC in the future.”