The G7 Summit (Ise-Shima Summit) will open on May 26, exactly one month from today. Kyodo News conducted a street survey of 206 people, including mainly residents of Shima City, Mie Prefecture, which is the main venue for the meeting (Shima City population: approx. 52,000). Over half of respondents said, “Excitement is low.” Mie Prefectural Government aims to offer omotenashi (hospitality) where both the public and private sectors join hands, but this survey shows that residents lack enthusiasm.

The street survey was conducted on April 18–19 in Shima City. Respondents were men and women aged 10–80s.

A total of 58.7% of pollees said that they had “high hopes” for holding the summit in terms of “increasing the number of tourists” and “enhancing the area’s brand power.” About the same number of respondents (57.7%) said that they had “concerns” in terms of “terrorism” and “inconvenience caused by security measures.” The survey shows that although people have high hopes for hosting the summit as a stimulus to the regional economy, the growing tensions worldwide due to frequent terrorist attacks mean that people have concerns as well.