Takashi Kato reporting on his visit to the Gotthard-Basistunnel.

Ken-ichi Kawamura expressing his view of the ILC.

The Linear Collider Forum of Japan is a joint group of physicists, engineers and industry. Their objectives are to explore the technical, economical and political aspects of the International Linear Collider as an international endeavour, to study the roles of the academic and industrial sector, make recommendations for research and development and to develop a feasible scenario for building the ILC. They also study the regional infrastructure, which is necessary to host the ILC and make recommendations for operating an international research institute. They hold meetings twice a year, and 84 people attended the meeting on 11 September at Gakushikai Annex, near the University of Tokyo.

Takashi Kato, an architect at Nikken Sekkei, a design company, reported on a tour of the group who visited extremely large-scale civil engineering projects in Europe. "The Gotthard-Basistunnel, which penetrates the Alps, is a 57-km two-tunnel structure, which gives me a very close feeling of what the ILC tunnels will look like," said Takashi, "We can learn a lot from this project."

Kaoru Yokoya and Tetsuo Shidara reported on the progress of the ILC' s GDE, such as the study of design changes and the cost confidentiality rules. Shin-ichi Kurokawa announced that APAC2007 will be held from 29 January to 2 February 2007 at the Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology in Indore, India. Norihiko Ozaki, secretary of the Forum, proposed his plans for establishing an international industrial symposium on the linear collider.

Then Ken-ichi Kawamura, secretary of "the Federation of Diet members to promote the realisation of ILC", presented his views on science policy. "Strategic planning and harmony within the academic sector is necessary to realise the ILC," said Kawamura. "It is very important to establish a firm policy on fundamental research - to commit to international projects as a national policy, and to establish a firm diplomatic base on scientific research. Please keep up to the hard work, and I will continue my job as well."

--Youhei Morita