Tokyo zoo pandas due to leave Japan on Jan 27

TOKYO - Two hugely popular pandas at a Japanese zoo will depart on Jan 27 to join their sister in China, the Tokyo government and media said,

leaving Japan panda-less

for the first time in half a century.

Loaned out as part of China’s “panda diplomacy” programme, the distinctive black-and-white animals have symbolised friendship between Beijing and Tokyo since the normalisation of diplomatic ties in 1972.

Japan currently has only two pandas, Lei Lei and Xiao Xiao, at Tokyo’s Zoological Gardens in the Ueno neighbourhood.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which operates the Ueno Zoo, previously said the last day for their public viewing will be on Jan 25.

The twins will be flown out of Japan two days later, the Tokyo government said on Jan 19.

They are slated to arrive on Jan 28 at a facility in China housing their older sister, Xiang Xiang, Kyodo News agency said.

Many fans cried when Xiang Xiang left Ueno Zoo for China in 2023, and her departure was broadcast live on local television.

Ties between Asia’s two largest economies are fast deteriorating after Japan’s conservative Premier Sanae Takaichi hinted that

Tokyo could intervene militarily

in the event of any attack on Taiwan.

Her comment

provoked the ire of Beijing

, which regards the island as its own territory. AFP