The last 2 pandas in Japan are leaving for China as ties are strained

TOKYO (AP) - Japanese panda fans gathered Sunday for the final public viewing at Tokyo's Ueno zoo before twins Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei return to China this week.

Their departure on Tuesday will leave Japan with no pandas for the first time in half a century, and the chances of getting a replacement are poor, with Tokyo's relations with Beijing at their lowest point in years.

China first sent pandas to Japan in 1972, a gift meant to mark the normalization of diplomatic ties between the two wary neighbors. The cuddly black-and-white bears immediately won Japanese hearts, and a dozen successors have become national celebrities.

The latest departing panda twins have attracted massive crowds despite a one-minute viewing limit per visitor in the panda zone set by the zoo. Visitors, many of them carrying panda-themed toys, call out the bears' names and use smartphones to capture them as they nibble bamboo and stroll around. Many of those who couldn't get panda viewing tickets still came to the zoo anyway to mark the last day.

Longtime panda fan Michiko Seki, in a panda-patterned black-and-white shirt, said she was happy to see and photograph the twins looking healthy and eating well. She was using the same camera she had bought when she started taking photos of their elder sister Xian Xian that left Japan two years ago.

Seki says she doesn't want to see pandas stuck in the diplomatic row. "They are the animals that can provide tremendous comfort," she said. "Japan needs pandas, and (I) hope politicians will work something out."

Beijing lends pandas to other countries but maintains ownership, including over any cubs they produce. Xiao Xiao and his sister Lei Lei were born in the Ueno zoo in 2021.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun, asked about China sending new pandas to Japan, said: "I know giant pandas are loved by many in Japan, and we welcome Japanese friends to come visit them in China."

Web engineer Takahiro Takauji's days revolve around pandas.

It started 15 years ago when he visited the Ueno Zoological Gardens and fell in love with the twin pandas' parents, Shin Shin and Ri Ri, soon after their arrival from China.

"Their shape and the way they move are honestly so cute and funny," he told The Associated Press in a recent interview at his home near Tokyo. "Sometimes they are baby-like; at other times they act like an old man."

A daily zoo visit has since become essential. He has taken more than 10 million photos of the pandas, and published a number of panda photo books.

On a recent afternoon, Takauji was among thousands who entered a competitive online booking system to see the pandas one last time.

During the one-minute viewing session, Takauji held his camera high above the other fans and took as many as 5,000 still shots to capture every motion of Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei.

Back at home, in a room adorned with dozens of panda mascots and ornaments, Takauji carefully went through his fresh photos from the day and uploaded them on his blog, "Every Day Pandas."

Having seen the twins since birth, he considers them "just like my own children."

"I never imagined there would come a day when pandas would be gone from Japan," he says.

Japan has faced increasing political, trade and security tensions with China, which was angered by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's recent remarks that potential Chinese action against Taiwan, the self-governing democratic island Beijing claims as its own, could spark Japanese intervention.

Ties between Japan and China have been fraught since the Japanese aggression in the 19th century. There are still territorial disputes in the East China Sea as China's rise is accompanied by security threats and increasing economic influence in the region.

Japan's top government spokesperson, Minoru Kihara, acknowledged on Thursday that the Japanese Consulate in Chongqing has been without a consul for a month because China has delayed approval of a replacement.

Giant pandas, native to southwestern China, serve as an unofficial mascot. Beijing lends them to other countries as a sign of goodwill and as part of research and conservation programs.

The first pair of pandas, Kang Kang and Lan Lan, that China gifted to Japan arrived in Ueno on Oct. 28, 1972. It was one month after Japan's prime minister at the time, Kakuei Tanaka, and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai signed a joint communique normalizing ties between the countries. Japan noted it "fully understands and respects" China's claim on Taiwan as "an inalienable part" of its territory.

China also gifted the first giant pandas around that time to other Western nations, including the United States, France, Britain and Germany.

China switched to leasing programs in the 1980s, with participating overseas zoos paying annual fees for habitat conservation or scientific research to benefit the species.

Japan has seen panda diplomacy turn political. A plan to bring a panda to Japan's northern city of Sendai after the 2011 quake and tsunami disaster was shelved in the wake of a 2012 territorial dispute.

Panda images appear in and outside of the Ueno zoo on cookies and sweets, stuffed dolls, stationery and photo books. Panda statues sit outside a train station. A department store has a section dedicated to panda goods.

"Pandas are a symbol of Ueno, a star," said Asao Ezure, manager of a souvenir shop. "We worry how the pandas' absence will affect us."

Showing a cartoon of Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei on a shop signboard, Ezure says he believes that pandas will come back. "So we are not going to change the signboard."

The absence of pandas at the zoo would cause an annual loss of about 20 billion yen ($128 million), according to Katsuhiro Miyamoto, an economics professor at Kansai University.

"If the situation continues for several years, the negative economic impact of having no pandas is expected to reach tens of billions of yen," Miyamoto said in a statement. "For panda-loving Japanese, including myself, I hope they return as soon as possible."