News from Japan
Photo: Keisho Sakakida (left), Ambassador Ana Polak Petrič (middle), Akio Nakayasu (right) at Cosylab Japan.
Together with Akio Nakayasu, General Manager of Cosylab Japan, they visited Morioka, the capital city of Iwate Prefecture in the Tōhoku region of northern Japan. They have met with the Governor, President of Iwate Industrial Research Center, President of Iwate Industry Promotion Center, President of Iwate University, President of Iwate Prefectural University, Chairman of Morioka Chamber of Commerce, Director General of ILC Promotion Bureau, and several other important people.
The purpose of the visit was to present and promote Slovenia and Cosylab and discuss the International Linear Collider (ILC) Project with some of the crucial stakeholders.
ILC is a substantial international project planned in Iwate Prefecture, with a total investment of JPY 800 billion (6 billion €). If realized, it will consist of two linear accelerators, approximately 20 kilometres in length, where electrons will collide with positrons nearly 7000 times every second at almost the speed of light. The science discovered there could help answer questions about the Higgs boson, dark matter, dark energy and supersymmetry. Given its planned location, the ILC could also help to revitalize the Tōhoku region, which is still recovering from the 2011 earthquake and tsunami and the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant that followed.