Host nations call the shots

When chairing a Group of Seven summit meeting, the host country gets to decide agenda items and which countries to invite.

When Japan has held the G7 presidency in the past, its choices have strongly re ected the then prevailing international situation.

e Kyushu-Okinawa Summit in 2000 and the Hokkaido Toyako Summit in 2008 were held as Group of Eight summits, which included Russia. Russia joined the group in 1997 but was excluded in 2014 following its unilateral annexation of Crimea in southern Ukraine.

For the Toyako summit — organized by the administration of then Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda — Japan invited China, South Korea and other countries with which it had cordial ties at the time. India and other emerging countries, such as those from Africa, also participated, and the summit registered a record-high 22 attending heads of state. e Toyako meeting primarily focused on measures to combat global warming, with the G8 nations agreeing to set a common long-term global goal of halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

At the Ise-Shima Summit in 2016 — chaired by then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe — the member countries agreed to implement economic measures, including scal stimulus steps, against a backdrop of slowdowns in emerging economies and other elements. While visiting Japan for the summit, Barack Obama became the rst sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima, which was devastated by an atomic bomb in 1945, marking a historic milestone that symbolized the reconciliation between the United States and Japan. (Jan. 8)

Yomiuri Shimbun file photo Four then heads of state — from left, Lee Myung-bak of South Korea, Manmohan Singh of India, Yasuo Fukuda of Japan and Hu Jintao of China — are seen after a group photo session at the Hokkaido Toyako Summit in July 2008.