The beginning of a new era in Japan
From Our Own Correspondent
BBC
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 4 May 2019
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As Emperor Naruhito takes the throne in Japan, Rupert Wingfield-Hayes watches the crowds waving flags and wiping away tears. What will this new era hold for the country and its imperial family?
Kate Adie introduces this and other stories:
Katy Watson has the latest instalment in the drama that is gripping Brazil as rival factions vie for control under the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro.
Neil Kisserli reveals why protesters in Algeria are picking up the litter and taking pot plants with them as they demand change.
Zeinab Badawi returns to Sudan to meet the young architecture student leading the revolution.
And Dave Lee hears from tech workers in Silicon Valley who fear they’ve become the new bankers – seen as public figures to be reviled and blamed for the ills they have brought into society.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:06.0 | Hello. |
| 0:06.9 | Today, the latest installment in the drama that's Brazilian politics, |
| 0:11.5 | with rival factions competing for influence over the President, factions including |
| 0:16.2 | the military and his own family. |
| 0:19.2 | In Algeria, we're out with protesters draped in their country's flag and sometimes sporting shower |
| 0:24.8 | cups as they demand change at the top. More protests and more change in Sudan, but will women's demands |
| 0:32.2 | be heard? |
| 0:33.6 | And in Silicon Valley, one item of clothing says it all about elitist groupthink and inequalities |
| 0:40.3 | of wealth, gender and race. But what is this standout garment? A new emperor took |
| 0:47.6 | the throne in Japan this week. Year 31 ended, year 1 began. |
| 0:53.4 | While the Gurgorian calendar is widely used there, so too is the imperial calendar, which measures |
| 0:58.9 | time in relation to the rule of emperors. The first year of Raywa began on Wednesday, |
| 1:05.4 | Raywa meaning beautiful harmony according to the government's official |
| 1:09.2 | translation. The change has prompted Rupert Wingfield Hayes to look back at the history of the Imperial family |
| 1:16.0 | and assess what the future may hold for the country. |
| 1:20.0 | Over the last few days I've been asked many times to explain the significance of this moment in Japanese history, |
| 1:27.0 | the end of the Heisei era and the beginning of the new Rehwa era. |
| 1:31.0 | I've given many different answers, but the truth is I have struggled to come up with a |
| 1:36.2 | clear one. Yes there is a new name, a new calendar, a new younger, more cosmopolitan |
| 1:42.4 | royal couple, but no real power has shifted in Japan |
| 1:46.2 | because Japan's emperor doesn't have any real power the Americans made sure of that |
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