Japan to go panda-less as Ueno zoo pair set for China return
Popular twin pandas at a zoo in the Japanese capital are set to be returned to China in late January, the Tokyo metropolitan government said on Monday, leaving none in Japan for the first time in around half a century and creating public disappointment.
The last day of public viewing of male panda Xiao Xiao and his sister Lei Lei at Ueno Zoological Gardens, where they have lived since birth in 2021, will be on Jan. 25. The deadline for the pair’s return to China is approaching in February under a bilateral lease agreement between Tokyo and Beijing.
Prospects for another panda loan, seen as a diplomatic symbol of friendship between Japan and China, remain uncertain amid the deteriorating relationship between the Asian neighbors following Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s recent remarks on Taiwan.
China has long used the giant panda as a tool of diplomatic outreach and goodwill toward various nations.
“I think the panda was a symbol of friendship. Under normal circumstances, I would want to see China loan them (to Japan) again, but I guess it is likely difficult given the current situation,” said a woman in her 70s from Chiba Prefecture who was visiting a shopping street near the zoo with her husband, referring to frayed bilateral ties.
Lost opportunity
A 78-year-old resident of Tokyo said she recalled waiting in line to see newborn panda cub Xiang Xiang at the zoo in 2017 and lamented that children in Japan will not have the same opportunity.
In June, all four giant pandas on loan at the Adventure World amusement park in Shirahama, Wakayama Prefecture, departed for China, leaving only the Ueno pair in Japan.
Since the first pair of giant pandas arrived in Japan from China in 1972 to commemorate the normalization of diplomatic ties, the iconic bears have won the hearts of many among the Japanese public and brought economic benefits as tourist attractions.
For research
Lei Lei and Xiao Xiao were born to mother Shin Shin and her mate Ri Ri. Both were loaned to Japan for breeding research, arriving at Ueno zoo in February 2011 after the facility’s previous resident panda, Ling Ling, died in 2008.
Despite being born in Japan, the twins are owned by China.
The parents were returned to China in 2024. Xiang Xiang, the twin pandas’ elder sister, returned to China in 2023.
Japan’s prospects of securing replacement pandas have been clouded after Takaichi said in parliament on Nov. 7 that a Taiwan contingency could be a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan that may lead to action from the country’s defense forces.
This angered China as Beijing regards Taiwan as part of its territory and insists that the issue is purely an “internal affair.”
