At Tokyo zoo, visitors fear a spat with China will cost Japan its pandas

TOKYO – When Ueno Zoo in Tokyo announced this week that its most famous residents Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei – twin four-year-old giant pandas on loan from China –

would go home in late January

, a frenzy broke out in Japan.

Thousands of people descended on the zoo after seeing news alerts warning that

Japan would soon be panda-less

for the first time in more than half a century. Fears spread that the pandas would not be replaced as China punishes Japan over its of recent expression of support for Taiwan.