akihito sought to modernize the imperial family and bring it closer to the people but when money provided an indication of how far there is to go no female members of the family including meadow he tours wife and daughter were allowed in the room the people who reside in this palace are of course very important to japan but they have no political power since one thousand nine hundred seven the emperor has been a symbolic figure only even changes. have to come from the governments allowing abdication required change and only males from the male line of the family can become emperor with only three males in line to the throne their lineage is under threat one of them is eighty three another twelve so there is likely to be increasing pressure on japan's conservative government to make changes to try to safeguard the line of succession people who want to maintain the imperial tradition enterprise. have no other choice than to modernize it further by

accepting gender equality. in the postwar period. also become increasingly. japan's diversity was on display outside the palace people of all ages and backgrounds came just to be close to history and maybe catch a glimpse of the new emperor they'll get a better chance in october when a more elaborate ceremony is held and the imperial couple will travel around the capital city but japan is now in the age of now the one hundred twenty sixth emperor of japan. tokyo. government to help parts of syria. russia which is seeking to step in and fill the gap. syria used to meet its fuel

needs but facilities have been damaged in the war and the main oil and gas fields are still outside government control and has been importing eighty percent of its consumption mainly from iran until shipment stopped in october because of tighter u.s. sanctions on tehran government controlled areas are suffering from a fuel shortage damascus has another oil rich ally russia but politics seem to be at play. that the member. is not assisting the syrian government with fuel oil i think russia is using this to put pressure on the syrian government and it's. russia wants the writings and so the political military and security decisions in syria come from the kremlin. syria has just granted russia control of the main strategic commercial port and on the mediterranean for the next forty nine years it appears russia is replacing iran as syria's main oil supplier but it's not just losing leverage in the energy sector iran's financial difficulties makes it harder

for it to remain serious economic lifeline the sanctions are affecting its ability to expand its economic influence us thanks on iran have worked in russia's favor it no longer has to compete with her on over the economic benefits in post-war syria also the sanctions contain iran's influence and weakens its footprint making it easier for moscow to convince gulf arab countries and the west to reintegrate the syrian government in neighboring lebanon iran's allies are in power but sanctions are preventing them from. legally you cannot send a fuel to syria because the lebanese government is not allowing export because it considers that there are sanctions. syria has another friendly neighbor iraq which is rich in oil but authorities there haven't we opened the land trade route through the crossing the u.s.

is believed to be playing a role to prevent a land corridor from iran through iraq and syria to lebanon. iran wants to open the door to send goods then to and then to the ports along the mediterranean the americans are doing their best to close these crossings they are still in control. along the border attempts to block iran's regional goals are not new. and the recent sanctions may help contain iran and its allies spread out but it's not clear what impact will have in the long term. beirut. of the top stories then israel as president says he'll prosecute those involved in what he called an attempted the opposition leader. is calling for more protests. tuesday saw some of the most violent clashes between the opposition and the

supporters of president. a lot of violence there on the streets but in the end not much has changed president nicolas maduro remains in power and he appeared late on tuesday on television from the presidential palace saying that they were able to defeat what he called an imperialist part of the united states who is controlling what you consider to be a puppet of the opposition. protests the military in sudan or an old saver who should govern the country the military council which is currently in charge of people not to take the lower into their own hands but they're accusing the army of clinging to power and they want a civilian government a new round in the taliban and the u.s. is due to begin in cattle the u.s. state department has said its own voice. is. to meet representatives

over the taliban sides are trying to find a framework for peace in afghanistan. wednesday miles international workers day or may day in russia communists and trade unions have joined rallies in red square the workers of. decent wages in the philippine capital manila protests is criticize the government for its relations with china the union saying that it's led to an influx of cheap labor japan's new. has addressed the nation for the first time since becoming a mom that the empress says he'll rule in accordance with the culture to should work towards peace in japan and the world's history is next. on al-jazeera. the world's biggest democracy goes to the polls we focus on the

economic challenges facing india and the rise of. a new series if you want a winning environmental which meets some of the people striving to. twenty five years after coming to power can be a sea change its political dominance in south africa and a massive documentary series on the minds of two young girls in brazil over the past twenty years and with still living and populism on the rise across europe will these elections become a referendum you. may on al-jazeera. and . sits empty for any application akihito today we take a look at the impact. and.

you too the story. stone will. be missed. for the first time in more than two hundred years a japanese emperor has abdicated emperor akihito will be replaced by some crown prince not a hito in a ceremony on wednesday now he tows accession to the throne is ways in questions about the importance of the imperial family and what it means to be empress joining us to discuss this so cool murakami she's a reporter with the japan times roland kelts is a journalist and author of japan america and we also have a walk through that she's an activist and former member of the organization seals also known as students of what is the action for liberal democracy welcome

everybody is there a greeting the id to give you for the beginning of a brand new era what would you say to each other in japan. just. exactly. consider that you said to yourself all right so i guess live let me show you this this picture. i know you've been covering this end of an era beginning of a new era people standing outside of the imperial palace taking pictures i don't think they could see the ceremony from there but they were certainly out there infusing acidly marking this moment what is the atmosphere like in japan as one emperor stands down and you about see a new emperor come into play here. i think in general it's been very much about gratitude towards. cut and pray and meritorious and he chose he really carved out he developed a very close relationship ship to the with the people so people are very grateful

for his reign and also looking forward to the new era and what it would bring as well so in general it's a bit of. gratitude also i'm sentimental as and and looking forward to the new year as well as i know that your a cultural afficionado of japanese culture how would you describe what is happening right now what is this moment how will people write about it in the future. what i think in the short term it's just excuse for a celebration. you know this is golden we can ship and it's an unprecedented ten day holiday and i think people were shooting fireworks in a rather remote region called and i think it's it's just in some ways is just a lot of fun and i think you know for people of my uncle's generation who are in their seventy's or eighty's. it's an emotional moment but it's also

a moment socrates said of gratitude that japan has had you know thirty years of peace and really relatively speaking prosperity. i'm thinking about the legacy of. waste standing down from a young person's point of view what is his legacy how would you sum it up. remembered for his dedication for peace as well taking were related trips to rod. like paying the respect to other countries which no other emperors did wear and so that was something we have never seen before but also he is the first emperor for you know for young generation like me. who are as or in in haiti era. i'm going to show this picture here is a kid and this is

a story that you wrote emperor akihito a unifying figure the cost out of roche a pound symbol say i'm going to shows like very simple here the former emperor and the empress they are talking to people seems like a very normal natural everyday thing to do but there's something there which marks a difference from that from previous ways that emperors empresses have behaved in japan can you share that with that audience who may not notice that there's anything unusual about this picture. well and it's interesting to point out because these are the emperor and empress and well and prayer and meritless and credit and that and they're just right now is kneeling on the floor on the cold hard wooden floor of an accusation sent out of a place that was struck by a disaster and i think this was back in the early ninety's but this is very rare

you remember for and perhaps you do this it was unheard of before. basically up until the end of world war two until i was well a day in front because they were said to be descendants of odds and they were very secret beings and to think that they would merely on the floor with a common enemy and talk to them i love all that was unthinkable. akihito really took the role of being a symbol of as they into his own hands and created this. and we will force himself on his words of being much closer to the people. we need to come to connect and on a closer level and i love all of that picture that i showed up that was ninety ninety one and that was just after of a kind of option and there were so many other natural disasters where the foam empress from the empress they were there and they showed their humanity but i'm just looking at enki here as an adult i mean i think second it makes an excellent point which is that this particular rain

a say emperor. do. you know where it was a sort of gradual and quite extraordinary shift because if you think about what happened at the end of world war two. you know archytas father hirohito was stripped of his divinity which is some ways a kind of tragedy that the godliness of the emperor was destroyed by the occupation of the americans in that our nine hundred forty s. and then this emperor gradually quite beautifully. after nine hundred eighty nine takes his tower and he is prestigious directly to the people and it's a beautiful thing in japan and i think. the way change can happen here it can be very frustrating because japan you know is is can be slow to change but you know compared to the united states where people talk about change all the time and it rarely happens because you know debate takes over you know or or europe look at

bragg's it right everybody is debating all the time and nothing actually happens in japan what i've seen is that people don't talk about change so much but when it happens it can happen quite quite intensely and quite beautiful a lot of really think it's a couldn't have. and i think part of the reason that and rockier was able to create this new role from himself was because in the constitution and it just says that and is a symbol of the state and that's about as it was just that one word being a symbol and no. real guideline as to what's that but it's all about begun and that and you do it ambiguity really actually helps him sort of create that role of for him well i'm just looking at this page from saw a news twenty four and this sign here of the people into power weights and what is this new era get it because this here is what it was called he know now it's re wa

open to interpretation but beautiful harmony was the one that upon it was a no no this is what it means and means beautiful harmony so we are now in the era of pitiful harmony what does that mean what are your what are you hoping for coming up for this next this next year and. so. people and especially young people are very excited to be living in a new era which they didn't really expect or narrowly thought about. i x back to our two or i expect including myself young people to create a better society and want diverse somehow war. more international and a little less traditional japanese a little less japanese transitionally. i'm looking here i think yes they are as

it was it just added i mean i think well because been doing. in you know she's quite young and you know actually creating social movements in japan of the twenty first century is a sign of that new era which is a sign beautiful harmony can include the melodic tones of protest. i'm just looking at the lot of media outlets with spanning the what is it that the japanese emperor at this is associated with pain so he was a mangy of the japanese emperor signing documents opening sessions of parliament awarding on as a place key party numerous rituals no political power so could have how do you think the new m.p.'s got to do with us this doesn't sound like a dream job to me. well. my spare is.

not a dream job for many but that is the role of the empress yes as the state he has no political power that was part of the reason that he can that he was able to will the imperial family it was able to continue after that well after world war two they were stripped of that school and they're still and they were able to continue you kind of really know and continue to conscript and mentor and in general. what that means for emperor well now in prison there is huge so i'm sure that he will continue. previous employer actually he chose legacy as well. and procedure is very quick with the public so he'll probably kind of take a look at leaves that wasn't actually he to his book but then he'll add his own touch because i'm from there and as well yes violent yeah i was going to add that he also is entering. the rule of emperor with an absolutely brilliant partner

is why possible it's. all she's educated she has a degree from harvard she was in the diplomatic corps. when he proposed marriage and she gave it a pretty long good thought. except you know i want to be future and. then we have a thing it does here is that tell it now as a symbol our side of her wisdom how she's rude and brilliant woman and i think in some ways they're more significant they're not eat those. rise to the throne is the rise of this white house let's look at this family picture because i am wondering and people who don't have real families in their countries always ask what is the point of your royal family why do they still exist so i know this

personally i can appreciate this from a japanese point of view so let me just let me do a show and tell who is who and where they are and their place so this is empress to be now hito this is his wife it's empress to be code and then we've got the former empress the former empress this is the younger brother and his wife these are their three children child the eldest next and then the youngest will talk about him in just a minute and then this is the now and print empresses daughter only daughter. so this royal family do you care about them what do young people even care about them and their position and are they relevant. honestly i don't think a lot of people record could a name i mean i just strain to name every single one because if i did if i went to

the street and found a seventeen year old. young man or young woman would they be able to tell me who everybody was in this picture. not everyone who would they like the most in the picture do you think. the most definitely he took me to go for sure ok. yeah and the daughter. goes to. the only child. coming in and right i'm just thinking about what it is that the new emperor is able to do his father paved the way in terms of modernizing what the family is expected in the expectations now what happens. well this kind of goes on the point that roland was message mentioning earlier as well. the emperor and there is. he was oxford educated he was very interested in global

issues like water conservation is why school is also a former diplomat harvard educated so they both bring a very international touched ground which i think is very much a thought as and this kind of connects with the whole way we're used harmony. era name as well and also the fact that japan is becoming more and more diverse and then more foreign residents living in japan and earlier in april the government introduced a new visa that went for laborers can work in and as well so in a country that's diversifying where there will coach different cultural differences as well i think from the new emperor and empress will be able to bring that international touch and sort of represent the country in that respect though that's him unless we also assign you we also online comparison to what what it means to them what do they think the new emperor might be after to assiah actually pointed

this out he says on twitter he studied in oxford and the wife is a harvard graduate i think they will strengthen their coach and more build a better relationship with the japanese society and the well yes right in the head as they say i mean i have to look at this point tonight over darrow's on the friend of mine who's a film director and i said you know i i don't think anyone in japan under. under forty or even fifty cares about the new emperor really. and he turned to me and he said are you kidding you said no one under seventy cares about the new emperor and if you get forty and fifty. but you know ways we're talking about it we're saying you know maybe that's a good thing because if you lived in a country where people were obsessed about the emperor. that could be quite dangerous and scary i mean one of the things that you and as men it's to elude or avoid in the twenty first century is this kind of populistic hyper nationalistic

rhetoric that you see in many countries in the west including the united states including great britain including parts of western europe japan as not so far fallen into that gutter of nationalistic populism there are nationalists here but japan hasn't turned that way as a majority of the population overall so in some ways you feel that that is changing somewhat with the right to have that japan doesn't have to always kowtow to the relationship they had on the way that it was thought about after world war two and trying way out yap and his pride back was just a little different what is happening in other countries that you mentioned but that sense of japan being proud of itself and not having to keep referring back to while halting but it's definitely changing and you know one of the symbolic elements of. the characters that are used for the name is that they're actually taken for the

first time from a japanese work of literature yes and not even for chinese characters that's right and this and so that becomes something that is fairly different yes and what i think about i think japan has to do that because if you look at what's happening geopolitically. japan is in some ways between is living through a transition of geopolitics. the u.s. whatever degree you want to talk about it is in some ways shifting whether it's declining or not we don't know but it's shifting and china is definitely rising surge apparent is between these two world powers and it has to carve out a place for itself i want doesn't just serially mean national. but it needs some reckoning about i want to introduce into a conversation go tell us she's a senior at northeast asia associate at the wilson center she's been thinking about

this change of era in japan have a listen to. the japanese monarchy actually represents a sense of unity in the country it is a continuum of japanese history not over a millennium but actually two millennia it's really in pitch mises pounds and tradition. having a figurehead and. really representing the people and the values that it is spouses the challenge with this new her and his wife is whether they can actually meet some new challenges and the changing realities of japanese society and i believe that one of the biggest obstacles who will be about gender equality have to show you this three have one is nothing but initially this mo for america a doubt that there will be any reform to the patriarchal system a succession at this time next to me the younger brother and then his son so that

they're not thinking as going to be had change but i'm ready and. because some things you do is activism and changing the way that women are viewed in japan if you could i don't want to generalise but if you could give us a hint about what it is like to be a young woman in japan what would you say without audience. what it's like to be young woman in two parallel and the hardest jobs that you ever have to do. so yeah being a young woman in japan i'm sure it's hard everywhere but especially in your pain where the patriarchy is very very very strong. is definitely not easy we faced sexual saw like almost every day you know whether we're in taking a train or at workplace or and that's very normalized as well. where we're there

me to movement and all of that i mean is a movement that's been happening the last couple years i think it's changing a little bit but again. people don't really do well ten days and also and just. in a very much stronger in japan has a lot to do with. the japanese symbolic market i was a. i don't think yasser their next emperor narry they're here to only have a dollar. and that is actually. kind of makes bargain a conversation. about women's place in yeah not just in the monarchy but winds place in society in japan let me give you an illustration of this this is something this is the family tree here japan's emperor akihito abdicates so you see his parents then you see the former emperor the former empress let me show you

the line of succession the succession excuse me of emperor to be in our he took his wife so here is number one in six session number two he's younger brother number three. his younger brother's son so that will be a cow and empathy a new empress nephew missing out completely his first born princess i go this is problematic this is a conversation he's been having suck up how is that conversation going. well when prisons psycho was all and there was a bit of it about whether women should be able to succeed drowned because at that point then emperor akihito didn't have any grand as three grandsons so it looks very much like there was a going to be a male successor us all. koreans and he's a he too was born and that sort of debate really should be much on this was back in

around from around two thousand and four to two thousand and six i think in general with this new era coming in and. once again in general the japanese public is very much in favor of having women on the ground calls have shown that seventy percent are in favor. of the empress and also of. their own being cast on the women's side of army as well so this will be a debate that will probably be seeing in the new future but i'm just trying to see what the urgency is for a change to happen i love the way you describe change in japan i'm just looking here so we have put up a one ever number to and put up a three this is east a generation to go there is no urgency necessarily but the way you describe change could it possibly happen that one day we wake up one day see and princess i code will be the next empress in her own right is that even possible i hope

so. i think as i said earlier i mean i think having. is on if she's healthy mustn't go in a position of there's ability and power. and showing that a woman of such a credible accomplishment and global mentality is now in the imperial palace at the same time i think that you know anyone you talk to who comes to japan and businesspeople diplomats artists will tell you right away that the people you meet in japan the japanese you meet who are bilingual or multilingual or well traveled or open minded or progressive are by and large women it is an enormous extraordinary resource in japan and i have to

say that cynically i mean it's just japanese women are the post the best travelled the most globally minded the most talented and i most multilingual people i hate to interrupt because the end of the chinese saying fantastic things about women and particularly japanese women but i have to say thank you so much to gas as well as talking about the new era of weight walk which means beautiful harmony you'll find me online at a stream see the next time take taffy but. when your fiancee lives behind bars. the engagement also becomes a life sentence. zero world hears from three postin in women whose lives have been dictated by their relationships with men in prison. wedding on hold on al-jazeera.

until now the coverage of latin america and most of the world was about covering khuda taz tragedies as quakes and that was it but not for how couple feel how they look how they think and that's what we do we go anywhere five and a half months are demanding a good education system that was introduced to. latin america al-jazeera has come to fill a void that needed to be filled. people have to weigh your own record on this trouble in fact a few years ago there was place only for one state on the land of israel you do not believe in a two state solution the official story is that it will show you care about the official story if you were visit today you would say what has the media been telling. you join me. from my guests from around the

world take the hot seat and we debate the week's top stories on the big issues here on al-jazeera. as a libyan war in the world to advances on the capital tripoli his forces detained two turkish nationals. this year without you there live from doha also coming up. we will try and. venezuela's president control as the opposition calls for a military revolt and more protests. standoff in the protest

movement accuses the military of clinging to power. celebrations in japan as emperor another he sends to the through a day after his father abdicates.