SHIMA, Japan -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe claimed success Friday in winning support for his approach to fighting off a possible economic crisis from fellow leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy nations.
In meetings at a seaside resort, Abe appealed for more action to stave off a downturn, insisting that an earlier lack of urgency contributed to the financial crisis of 2008 to 2009.
Wrapping up the gathering with a sweeping declaration and several additional "action plans," the leaders acknowledged increasing risks for the global economic outlook, including terrorism, legions of displaced people and conflicts that "pose a serious threat to the existing rule-based international order."
But they said their countries had strengthened policies to avoid relapsing into crisis.
Attention swiftly shifted from the G-7 finale as Abe and President Barack Obama traveled to Hiroshima, where Obama became the first sitting president to visit the city attacked by the U.S. with an atomic bomb in 1945 in the closing days of World War II.
Abe said the commitment by the leaders to "use all policy tools -- monetary, fiscal and structural" was an endorsement of his own "Abenomics," a three-pronged strategy for reviving Japan's sluggish growth.
"We agreed to mobilize all our resources and launch three 'arrows' of monetary, fiscal and structural-reform measures," Abe said. "We will be launching Abenomics to the world."
"In order to avoid risks of the world economy falling into crisis, Japan will also do its utmost to cooperate and take leadership, mobilizing all possible resources, and boost the engine of Abenomics," he said.
More than three years after Abe took office vowing to "Bring Japan Back!" from more than two decades of economic doldrums, his formula has yet to deliver the desired results: rising wages, business investment and a sustained recovery that places the world's third-largest economy into a "virtuous cycle."
After a slight uptick in growth earlier this year, economists say conditions in Japan have deteriorated, partly because of the slowdown in China and other emerging economies.
But backing from his G-7 counterparts may give Abe a boost as his ruling Liberal Democratic Party heads into a July parliamentary election. It also could embolden him to put off an unpopular increase in the national sales tax, to 10 percent from 8 percent.
"Abenomics is not a failure at all," Abe told reporters, declaring he would "rev up the engine of Abenomics to the highest level possible."
While they did not formally agree that the world is poised on the brink of crisis, the G-7 leaders did claim a special responsibility for beefing up their own economic policies.
Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund, also said the world was "no longer in a 2008 moment."
"We are out of the crisis, but we are suffering the legacy of the crisis," Lagarde said, pointing to bad loans on the books of companies and banks as one of the biggest causes of concern.
But she said, "Many countries can do quite a lot and some more than they are currently doing."
The G-7 summit brought together the leaders of the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States. Leaders of major international organizations and a select group of developing countries attended "outreach" sessions held after the G-7 summit meetings ended.
The group's discussions addressed a wide range of issues, including terrorism and other risks to peace and global growth, the massive flows of refugees and migrants to Europe to escape conflict and poverty at home, global threats to public health, cybercrime, corruption and efforts to help girls and women.
The leaders also expressed unease over territorial tensions in the East and South China seas. The declaration does not specifically mention China and its expansion into disputed areas but calls for respect for freedom of navigation and overflights and for resolving conflicts peacefully through law.
But the main focus was on economic challenges.
In their statement, the leaders denounced protectionism and trade barriers and noted the negative impact of overcapacity in some industries. One of the biggest headaches, Abe said, was a glut in China's steel industry.
"It's a root cause distorting the market, and unless it's fundamentally resolved, the problem persists," he said.
A slowdown in China, the world's most populous nation, alongside a global steel glut, has spurred concerns among developed economies that turmoil there could send ructions across the globe.
"We want a good and thriving pace of economic growth for China," Merkel said earlier Friday. "China also has great structural challenges, for which we wish that China can tackle them, because that's in all of our interest."
The leaders said in an eleventh-hour warning on the U.K.'s June 23 referendum on whether to leave the European Union, that an exit would "reverse the trend towards greater global trade and investment and the jobs they create, and is a further serious risk to growth." The warning wasn't included in a draft of the communique as of Thursday evening.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said staying in the EU is "all about Britain's national interest."
"The EU makes us better off. Better off in terms of jobs, better off in terms of growth," Cameron said. "Better off in terms of investment by other countries into our economy that creates the growth and the jobs and the livelihoods that we need."
Leaders reaffirmed their commitment to market-determined exchange rates. They warned that "excess volatility and disorderly movements in exchange rates can have adverse implications for economic and financial stability."
Trade is a key driver of growth, the document said. It lauds the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact as "an important step forward" and called on each country to "complete its domestic process," while stopping short of a call to quickly ratify the agreement.
Final approval of the pact has faced delays in countries such as the U.S. and Japan, while Canada has not committed to ratification.
Leaders said they'll work toward an agreement in principle on the U.S.-EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership as early as this year, while encouraging the EU and Canada to bring their trade pact into force as quickly as possible.
Information for this article was contributed by Mari Yamaguchi, Elaine Kurtenbach, Miki Toda and Aritz Parra of The Associated Press and by Isabel Reynolds and Patrick Donahue of Bloomberg News.
A Section on 05/28/2016