On Sunday, thousands of people gathered at a Japanese zoo to bid farewell to the nation’s final two giant pandas, who are scheduled to travel to China on Tuesday. At the Ueno zoo in Tokyo, people waited in line for up to three and a half hours to view twin cubs Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei one last time, causing emotions to run high.
This occurs at a particularly sensitive time in Beijing-Tokyo ties. Since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi declared that Tokyo would intervene militarily if China invaded Taiwan, relations have drastically worsened. For the first time since the two nations’ diplomatic relations were restored in 1972, Japan will be without pandas following the twins’ departure.
Since its founding in 1949, the People’s Republic of China has deployed gigantic pandas as a show of goodwill toward its foreign rivals and supporters.
However, all pandas that China lends to other nations—including cubs born abroad—remain Chinese property. The host nations pay an annual cost of almost $1 million (£790,000) for each pair of pandas. About 108,000 people competed for one of the 4,400 spots offered for a final glimpse at the zoo’s cherished pandas, according to Tokyo’s metropolitan administration.
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