New Year's Message of 2013 from the Project Director

to top   In July 2012, I assumed the weighty responsibility of leading the J-PARC Center from the previous director, Shoji Nagamiya, and I made it through to the New Year without incident, thanks the tremendous help I received from all of you.

  In terms of J-PARC's progress in 2012, I am proud to say that we impressed researchers both in Japan and the world at large with our steady recovery from the earthquake, and our solid forward progress. We gained confidence by overcoming the many issues and difficulties we faced at the beginning of the year, and grew certain that we would achieve our goals as an intensity frontier facility aiming to stably supply the world's highest intensity beams. There is still a long road ahead, but to sum up, 2012 was the year when the path to J-PARC's goals came clearly into view.

  Looking ahead to the first half of 2013, we expect news of a world's first "discovery" of a new event involving neutrinos. At the same time, we should achieve supply of a beam with even higher power and quality to the Hadron facility. At the MLF facility, stable supply of a 300 kW beam will continue, and we can expect to see even greater research results. In the second half of 2013, J-PARC will complete preparations as an intensity frontier facility. The entire process here will have tremendous significance and play a key role in transporting us to a world that no one has yet experienced. All conceivable preparations must be made, for accelerators in particular. Also we plan to hold a J-PARC symposium in the fall where we will present to the world the results to date at J-PARC after overcoming the earthquake.

  With the cooperation and support of everyone in national and regional governmental agencies, and in industry, I plan to steadily move forward in 2013, together with the J-PARC staff, toward even greater accomplishments at J-PARC.