Japanese throng shrines to pray for profitable 2017

By Kiyoshi Takenaka TOKYO (Reuters) - Thousands packed a 1,300-year-old Shinto shrine in downtown Tokyo on Wednesday, the first official working day of 2017 in Japan, to pray for good luck and economic success in the new year. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was greeted by squealing crowds as he visited the Ise Grand Shrine, the holiest site in Japan's Shinto religion, near where Group of Seven leaders met last year for a summit. "We will put the highest priority on the economy," said Abe, dressed in