Local governments, businesses and academic institutions in Kyushu have launched all-out joint efforts to host a proposed next-generation particle accelerator to study fundamental questions about the universe's makeup.

Switzerland and the United States have been proposed as sites for the International Linear Collider, though the facility is almost certain to be built in Japan since none of the other two nations have offered to host it.

In mid-May, Fukuoka Gov. Hiroshi Ogawa and his Saga counterpart, Yasushi Furukawa, visited the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in the suburbs of Geneva.