OSAKA -- Just weeks before a decision is made on whether Japan or France gets to host the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project, Japanese officials are conducting a last-ditch international campaign to secure support.

But in a village of 11,600 people located near the northernmost tip of Honshu, where the ITER reactor would be built if Japan wins the bid, people don't seem to know too much about the project.

Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, was chosen as Japan's candidate site for the ITER project partly because it is already a major center for the nation's nuclear power industry.