The only remaining pair of twin pandas in Japan will be returned to China on the 27th. As a result, about a week later Japan will become a "panda-free country" for the first time in 54 years.
According to Asahi Shimbun and other outlets on the 20th, the Tokyo metropolitan government said the male giant panda twin "Xiao Xiao" and the female "Lei Lei," being kept at Ueno Zoo, will move to China via Narita Airport on the 27th.
Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei were born at Ueno Zoo in June 2021 and have lived in Japan since. Their parents, the male "Ri Ri" and female "Shin Shin," were already returned to China in Sep. last year.
Japan has brought in and kept pandas since normalizing diplomatic ties with China in 1972, but with this return, all pandas in Japan will be gone. It will be the first time since the 1970s that pandas completely disappear from Japan.
The last public viewing day to see the two pandas is on the 25th this month, and online viewing applications have already closed.
Kyodo News said, "With Japan-China relations chilled by remarks such as Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's comments on a Taiwan contingency, the prospects for new panda lending are uncertain."
China has continued so-called "panda diplomacy," gifting or lending pandas—which inhabit only China—to countries with friendly diplomatic relations. Pandas born overseas are usually returned to China around age 4.