{"id":355387,"date":"2025-12-19T11:38:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T11:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/355387\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:38:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T11:38:16","slug":"japans-last-two-giant-pandas-are-headed-to-china-and-fans-just-cant-bear-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/355387\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan’s last two giant pandas are headed to China and fans just can’t bear it"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tokyo, Japan
Reuters<\/a><\/p>\n

A day after news broke that Japan would soon lose its last two giant pandas to China, thousands of fans flocked to Tokyo\u2019s Ueno Zoo on Tuesday to catch a final glimpse, with many bidding the twins a tearful farewell.<\/p>\n

The announcement that four-year-old Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei would head to China at the end of January \u2013 ahead of a February 20 deadline \u2013 was national news on Monday, disappointing a nation that has long had a love affair with pandas. Their move to China had long been planned, but Tokyo\u2019s loss is rich in symbolism as China-Japan relations have lately deteriorated due to geopolitical matters.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Visitors film and photograph four-year-old giant panda Lei Lei at Ueno Zoo, a day after news broke that Japan will return two giant pandas to China at the end of January, 2026, in Tokyo, Japan, on 16th December, 2025. PICTURE: Reuters\/Kim Kyung-Hoon<\/p>\n

Last month, Beijing was angered after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Tokyo \u2013 and tensions are still high.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei led the news again as TV cameras captured throngs of visitors with panda hats, bags and other paraphernalia forming long queues since early in the morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want these pandas to stay in Japan forever,\u201d said 60-year-old hospitality worker Hiroyo Kashio. \u201cI know they belong to China, but since they were born in Japan, I really want them to stay in Ueno Zoo.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The twins were born in the zoo in June 2021 and have been a drawing card since their parents departed last year. Once they leave, Japan will be panda-less for the first time since 1972, the year it normalised diplomatic relations with China.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe birth of these twins truly gave us so much, both in terms of experience and emotional impact,\u201d said Hitoshi Suzuki, the chief of animal care and exhibition at Ueno Zoo. \u201cI\u2019m deeply grateful for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Symbolic loss
China, in what has been called panda diplomacy, has a history of loaning out pandas to reward its allies, though it has sometimes taken them back to express displeasure. Native to China, giant pandas typically return home after the loan agreement ends \u2013 and cubs born overseas are no exception.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Anticipating a flood of visitors until 25th January, Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei\u2019s final viewing day, Ueno Zoo began restricting viewing at the panda pavilion to about a minute starting on Tuesday and will require online reservations starting next week. For the last 12 days, a lottery will be drawn to pick the lucky viewers.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe our Prime Minister\u2019s comments had some influence on this,\u201d visitor Kashio said. \u201cBut pandas shouldn\u2019t be political. They\u2019re symbols of friendship between Japan and China, so I really hope pandas can stay here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tokyo, JapanReuters A day after news broke that Japan would soon lose its last two giant pandas to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,95,153781,112512,2454,151293,71246,66,1382,151295,323,151291],"class_list":["post-355387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-china","tag-china-japan-relations","tag-giant-pandas","tag-japan","tag-lei-lei","tag-sanae-takaichi","tag-science","tag-taiwan","tag-ueno-zoo","tag-wildlife","tag-xiao-xiao"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}