To: J-PARC Director, Yujiro Ikeda
Re: Shutdown of the Ohta-danchi houses
In many experimental groups at the J-PARC Hadron Experimental Facility (socalled Hadron Hall), a certain number of members have to stay at J-PARC for a long time
not only during the beam time but also preparation stage of the experiment. In order tomaintain the safety and health of the users at J-PARC, it is of essential importance tosecure accommodations continuously. Recently, we have been informed that the Ohtadanchi houses will be restored to JAEA by the end of March, 2016. We recognize that theavailability of accommodation for long-staying users will be lost by the shutdown of theOhta-danchi houses. This will make it much harder to reserve rooms in the Tokaidormitory, in particular, a busy beam time season. As a result, it will affect the travel
cost not only for the Hadron users but also all the other J-PARC users.
We report the use of accommodations for long-staying users, in Reference 1 below. It
is found that both the Minouchi and Ohta-danchi houses are frequently used since theJ-PARC facilities were opened even in the construction state of J-PARC, except for theshutdown periods due to the East-Japan Earthquake and the failure of the T1 target atthe Hadron Hall. In this occasion, we collected requests for the accommodations and its
management from the HUA users. In particular, we strongly desire the J-PARC centerto consider seriously the requests from foreigners since the J-PARC is an international
research institute open for users from all over the world.
In the Hadron Hall, the upgrade of the beam power and construction of new beamlines are still under way. A lot of experimental programs are waiting for beam time, thus
fulfilment of accommodations at J-PARC are more and more desired. The HUA is deeply
concerned about the shutdown of the Ohta-danchi houses and strongly requests animprovement in the available accommodations at J-PARC.
21 August, 2014
On behalf of the users at the Hadron Hall,
Hadron User Association
President

Tomofumi Nagae

Reference１：use of accommodations for long-staying users (HUA members)
Houses# of used# of users per

Period usedhouseshouse (*)

Minouchi2

４August, 2009～March, 2011

Ohta-danchi

１

３～６

December,2012～September, 2013(*)Typical # of users. The users from many affiliations, such as Tohoku U., Osaka U.,
Kyoto U., and Seoul Nat’l U. have used.
Reference 2：Requests for the J-PARC accommodations
１． While the Tokai dorm is really very nice, what J-PARC needs (somewhat desperately,from my perspective) are some small but well-equipped and of course fully furnishedapartments, such as the ones at KEK. This would make it much more attractive forvisitors to come for longer periods with their spouse.
２． We have four students staying in KEK or JPARC dormitories for 10 weeks during
the summer.

In addition we have one or two students who stay at JPARC for

several months during Hadron Hall operations.
stayed at Tokai I or Masago.

In the past the students have

We have not used Ohta Danchi or Minouchi.

３． Other requests:A) Printers available from the JLAN or GWLAN networkB) Discount for long-stay users
C) Lounge or meeting room (like those Tsukuba dormitory)D) Occupancy limit for participants of a workshop or a collaboration meeting(According to the current rule for reservation, a group reservation seems to havepriority rather than those for general users.）