Thousands of people gathered at a zoo in Japan on January 25 to say goodbye to the country’s last two giant pandas, who are due to return to China on January 27.
At Tokyo’s Ueno zoo, emotions were high as visitors waited in lines of up to three-and-a-half hours to see the twin cubs, Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei, for the final time.
The farewell comes at a tense moment in relations between Tokyo and Beijing, which have worsened sharply after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Japan would intervene militarily if China attacked Taiwan.
With the twins’ departure, Japan will have no pandas for the first time since 1972, when the two countries normalised diplomatic relations. China has long used panda loans as a symbol of goodwill towards other nations.
China retains ownership of pandas it loans to foreign countries, including cubs born abroad, and host nations pay about $1 mln a year for each pair. Tokyo’s metropolitan government said about 108,000 people applied for one of 4,400 available slots to see the pandas one last time.
Some visitors were pictured in tears as they said their farewells.
Panda diplomacy faces uncertainty
Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei were born in 2021 at the Ueno zoo to mother Shin Shin and father Ri Ri, both of whom were on loan to Japan for breeding research.
Panda loans have often been linked to major trade deals. For example, the loan of two pandas to Edinburgh Zoo in 2011 coincided with negotiations on contracts for salmon, Land Rover vehicles and energy technology.
Many panda loans have ended in recent years, with agreements typically lasting ten years but often extended.
A new panda loan to Japan remains uncertain as the diplomatic row escalates. Beijing has been angered by Prime Minister Takaichi’s comments on Taiwan, which China considers part of its territory and has not ruled out using force to reunify.
Both sides have since taken increasingly hostile actions and used aggressive rhetoric. Earlier this month, China tightened restrictions on exports of rare earth-related products to Japan.
