| Summit Name: | 5th G7 summit |
| Country: | Japan |
| Dates: | June 28–29, 1979 |
| Follows: | 4th G7 summit |
| Precedes: | 6th G7 summit |
The 5th G7 Summit was held at Tokyo, Japan between June 28 and 29, 1979. The venue for the summit meetings was the State Guesthouse.[1] The Group of Seven (G7) was an unofficial forum which brought together the heads of the richest industrialized countries: France, West Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada (since 1976),[2] and the President of the European Commission (starting officially in 1981).[3] The summits were not meant to be linked formally with wider international institutions; and in fact, a mild rebellion against the stiff formality of other international meetings was a part of the genesis of cooperation between France's president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and West Germany's chancellor Helmut Schmidt as they conceived the first Group of Six (G6) summit in 1975.[4]
The G7 is an unofficial annual forum for the leaders of Canada, the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.[3]
The 5th G7 summit was the first summit for British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. It was also the first and only summit for Canadian Prime Minister Joe Clark and Japanese Prime Minister Masayoshi Ohira.
These summit participants are the current "core members" of the international forum:[5] [1] [6]
| Core G7 members Host state and leader are shown in bold text. | |||
| Member | Represented by | Title | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Canada | Joe Clark | Prime Minister |
 | France | Valéry Giscard d'Estaing | President |
| West Germany | Helmut Schmidt | Chancellor | |
 | Italy | Giulio Andreotti | Prime Minister |
 | Japan | Masayoshi Ōhira | Prime Minister |
| United Kingdom | Margaret Thatcher | Prime Minister | |
 | United States | Jimmy Carter | President |
| European Community | Roy Jenkins | Commission President | |
| Valéry Giscard d'Estaing | Council President | ||
The summit was intended as a venue for resolving differences among its members. As a practical matter, the summit was also conceived as an opportunity for its members to give each other mutual encouragement in the face of difficult economic decisions.[4] Coming amidst the "second oil shock" caused by the Iranian Revolution, the summit became devoted to the problem of energy, according to historian Daniel Yergin. "It was also a very nasty one. Tempers were badly frayed." US President Jimmy Carter stated that West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt "got personally abusive toward me .... He alleged that American interference in the Middle East trying to work for a peace treaty was what had cause the problems with oil all over the world."[7]