Dec. 15 (UPI) -- Twin giant pandas will leave a Japanese zoo in late January to go home to China, leaving Japan pandaless.
Xiao Xiao and his sister Lei Lei have been at the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo since their birth in 2021. Their parents, Ri Ri and Shin Shin went back to China in September 2024 and their older sister Xiang Xiang left in February 2023. Four other pandas were returned in June from Adventure World in Shirahama, Wakayama Prefecture.
The Tokyo government is hoping to lease another pair of pandas, but relations with China have chilled since Prime Minister Sanae Takaishi said in November that Japan may have to respond if China were to begin military action in Taiwan.
"I think the panda was a symbol of friendship. Under normal circumstances, I would want to see China loan them [to Japan] again, but I guess it is likely difficult given the current situation," an unnamed woman in her 70s from Chiba Prefecture told Kyodo News.
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