The MEXT, the Japanese Ministry that supervises KEK, has announced that it will appropriate a budget of 100 oku-yen (approx $110M) over the next three years starting this Japanese fiscal year (JFY2010) for the high performance upgrade program of KEKB. This is part of the measures taken under the new "Very Advanced Research Support Program" of the Japanese government.
 
"We are delighted to hear this news," says Masanori Yamauchi, former spokesperson for the Belle experiment and currently a deputy director of the Institute of Particle and Nuclear Studies of KEK. "This three- year upgrade plan allows the Belle experiment to study the physics from decays of heavy flavor particles with an unprecedented precision. It means that KEK in Japan is launching a renewed research program in search for new physics by using a technique which is complementary to what is employed at LHC at CERN."