G8 host town gets back to normal after summit

SAPPORO (Kyodo) After more than a year of frenzied preparation by locals and authorities to host the Group of Eight summit, the town of Toyako, Hokkaido, was returning to its daily routine Thursday.

At ease: A ceremony is held Thursday in Sapporo to relieve thousands of police officers mobilized from various parts of Japan of their special security duty in Hokkaido, where the Group of Eight summit ended the previous day in the town of Toyako. KYODO PHOTO

Police officers, who had stood, dressed in uniform, every few meters before and during the three-day summit that wrapped up Wednesday, now wore street clothes and lugged suitcases as they made their way out of the hot spring resort town.

At and around JR Toya Station, welcome signs were being replaced by others emblazoned with the words "Commemoration of hosting the summit" hung from pedestals displaying national flags of countries that took part in the event.

Goods were carried back to shops at Windsor Hotel Toya, the summit venue, that had been emptied for security reasons.

A 59-year-old man in Toyako harvested lettuce from his field in the morning as usual, no longer bothered by helicopters hovering above him.

His 33-year-old daughter said, "I think farmers in the neighborhood are feeling at ease after the closing (of the summit)."

In Sapporo, about 380 police officers mobilized from all over Japan to beef up security attended a farewell ceremony.

Hokkaido Gov. Harumi Takahashi expressed her gratitude in a speech at the ceremony, saying, "The summit's success was impossible without your hard work to maintain security."

A total of about 21,000 officers from all 47 prefectures had been mobilized to maintain security at the summit venue and elsewhere in Hokkaido.

"I am relieved to complete our mission without incident. We were able to return the courtesies of security that we received at the Okinawa summit in 2000," Kiyomasa Yasumura, 56, head of the riot police division of the Okinawa Prefectural Police, told reporters.

The G8 nations include Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States and Russia.

RUSUTSU , Hokkaido (Kyodo) Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has hinted that next year's Group of Eight summit may not take place on the small island of La Maddalena as planned.

Berlusconi said it is "possible" that Italy may change the venue of next year's G8 summit if the country finds it difficult to set up necessary facilities there, according to Italian reporters, who attended his news conference Wednesday.

Berlusconi, however, did not specify an alternative site for the 35th summit at the news conference, which was held only in Italian with no interpretation, after the end of this year's three-day summit in Toyako, Hokkaido.

This is the first time the Italian leader has floated the idea of changing the site of next year's G8 summit from La Maddalena, the reporters said.

They said there are rumors that the annual meeting may instead take place in the premier's luxurious villa La Certosa in Sardinia, where Berlusconi hosted a meeting in April with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who was president of the country at that time.

In 2007, Italy officially announced that the next summit would be held on the tiny island off northern Sardinia, where the United States had a naval base until recently.

The chair's summary of the Heiligendamm, Germany, summit last year stated that the 34th summit would be held in Toyako, but this year's summary only said the next one would be held in Italy, without further specifying the location.