Just before departing for this year's Group of Seven summit in Germany earlier this month, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that Shima, situated at the end of a peninsula in Mie Prefecture, will be the main venue for next year's annual gathering.
The announcement elated local residents, because the short but lucrative G-7 summit, slated for May, is expected to give a shot in the arm to the region, which, like many other rural areas in Japan, has a rapidly shrinking and graying population.
Abe named it the Ise-Shima Summit, after the area that includes the cities of Ise, where Japan's top Shinto shrine stands, and Shima, where the summit will be held.