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           G7 Leaders Begin Summit with Visit to Japanese Holy Shrine

   by VOA News

   Some of the world's most powerful figures indulged in a spot of tourism
   in Japan Thursday before tackling a luncheon menu of economics,
   terrorism and maritime security.

   The heads of state of the world's seven wealthiest nations plus the
   leaders of the European Union began their annual summit in the coastal
   Japanese city of Ise Shima.

   Prime Minster Shinzo Abe greeted U.S. President Barack Obama and the
   leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Canada at the Ise Grand
   Shrine, the holiest site in Japan's Shinto religion, of which Abe is a
   fervent follower.  Each leader walked across a long bridge to the
   shrine, accompanied by a white-robed priest, before assembling for a
   traditional group photograph.

   The agenda for the two-day G7 summit is dedicated to boosting the
   sluggish global economy, combating terrorism and maritime security, the
   last point an obvious nod to China's increasing territorial expansion
   in the resource-rich South China Sea, ignoring similar claims by its
   Asia Pacific neighbors.

   ''

   After the summit's conclusion on Friday, Obama will travel to
   Hiroshima, where tens of thousands of Japanese were killed when a U.S.
   warplane dropped the world's first atomic bomb in 1945, hastening the
   end of World War Two.

   Obama's arrival in Ise Shima Wednesday was overshadowed by anger over a
   former U.S. Marine's confessed involvement in the killing of a
   20-year-old Japanese woman outside an American military base in
   Okinawa.

   Abe expressed his country's  "profound resentment" to the U.S.
   president during a news conference after the two leaders held a face-to
   face meeting.

   Japanese authorities say Kenneth Franklin Shinzato, a 32-year-old
   former U.S. Marine, confessed to stabbing and strangling the woman,
   Rina Shimabukuro, and then dumping her body in a wooded area near the
   American base where he worked.

   Obama said the U.S. will continue to cooperate in the investigation of
   the killing "to ensure justice is done under the Japanese legal
   system.  We want to see this crime prosecuted," just as if it occurred
   in the United States.

   The young woman's death has brought back memories of the 1995 rape of
   Japanese schoolgirls by U.S. military personnel on Okinawa, which
   triggered huge demonstrations there against the American bases.

   The latest crime could become a further impediment to Abe's push to
   relocate a U.S. Marine Corps air station to another part of Okinawa's
   main island, a move that already has been facing significant local
   opposition.

   There are 53,000 U.S. military personnel based in Japan, plus 43,000
   family dependents, and 5,000 Department of Defense civilian employees.
   Fifteen of the 23 American bases in Japan are located in Okinawa, which
   was occupied by the United States from the time of Japan's World War II
   defeat in 1945 until 1972.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/g7-leaders-begin-summit/3346701.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/g7-leaders-begin-summit/3346701.html