World leaders gather in Japan ahead of G7
US President Barack Obama yesterday arrived in Japan for a Group of Seven summit, kicking off a historic visit that will also take him to the atomic-bombed city of Hiroshima.
Obama was joining other leaders from the club of rich democracies for a gathering set to be dominated by the lacklustre state of the global economy.
Heads of state and government from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and host Japan were also making their way to Ise Shima, a mountainous and sparsely populated area 300 kilometres southwest of Tokyo, whose mainly elderly residents rely chiefly on tourism and cultured pearls.
Security was tight across the region, with thousands of extra police drafted in to patrol train stations and ferry terminals, and to direct traffic on the usually quiet roads during the two-day meeting.
Obama is to visit Hiroshima on Friday. He will become the first sitting US leader to travel to the city, the site of the world's first nuclear attack, on August 6, 1945.
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