TOKYO, Dec 21 – Crowds lined up Saturday at Ueno zoo in Tokyo on the first weekend since it was announced that twin giant pandas Xiao Xiao and his sister Lei Lei will leave Japan next month, with many visitors coming to bid them farewell.
A 45-year-old woman from Tokyo’s Taito Ward, where Ueno Zoological Gardens is located, said she had visited regularly to see the pandas, describing them as “adorable and soothing.” She added the announcement of their departure for China was sudden and came as a “shock.”
“Of course I’d like new pandas to arrive, but with relations with China worsening, it may be difficult for now,” she said.
More than 3,000 people of all ages lined up before the zoo opened despite the cold weather, with applications for viewing halted in just over an hour due to the congestion. Children carrying panda plush toys were seen among the crowd.
Sino-Japanese ties have deteriorated sharply since Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi indicated last month that Tokyo could authorize the Self-Defense Forces to act if Beijing engages in coercive measures against Taiwan, even if Japan is not directly attacked.
With the prospect of a new loan of pandas by China uncertain, the departure of the twins means the animals, long cherished as a symbol of bilateral friendship since the first pair arrived in 1972, will no longer be present in Japan.
Earlier this month, the Tokyo metropolitan government said the four-year-old twins would leave for China in late January under a bilateral lease agreement. Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei have lived at Ueno zoo since they were born in 2021.
