Japan’s Last 2 Pandas to Return to China in Jan.

Tokyo, Dec. 15 (Jiji Press)–Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei at Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo, the only giant pandas Japan has, will be returned to China in late January, the Tokyo metropolitan government said Monday. The male-female twins were born at the zoo in the capital’s Taito Ward in 2021 and have since been there. But an agreement between the Tokyo metropolitan government and the China Wildlife Conservation Association stipulates the twins’ handover to China, which retains ownership of all giant pandas in the world, by February 2026. Their departure will put an end to nearly 55 years of panda conservation efforts in Japan, which started in 1972 with the arrival of Kang Kang and Lan Lan, a male-female pair, at Ueno Zoo to mark the diplomatic normalization between the two countries. The zoo temporarily saw all its pandas gone in the past. But panda projects in the country continued at other zoos, including Adventure World in Shirahama in the western prefecture of Wakayama. The Wakayama zoo returned its four remaining pandas to China in June, making Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei the only pandas in Japan. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]