Twin giant pandas at Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo will return to China in late January, leaving Japan without any pandas for the first time in years.
Xiao Xiao and his sister Lei Lei have been at Ueno Zoo since their birth in 2021. Their parents, Ri Ri and Shin Shin, were sent back to China in September 2024, and their older sister Xiang Xiang left in February 2023. Earlier in June, four other pandas were returned from Adventure World in Shirahama, Wakayama Prefecture.
The Tokyo government hopes to lease another pair of pandas, but tensions with China have grown since Prime Minister Sanae Takaishi warned in November that Japan might respond if China took military action in Taiwan.
“I think the panda was a symbol of friendship. Normally, I would want to see China loan them [to Japan] again, but it seems difficult under the current situation,” said an elderly woman from Chiba Prefecture.
Panda leasing programs support joint research between the two countries to protect the species. Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei were originally scheduled to return at the end of February 2026, but the timeline was moved up to late January, with final details to be announced by the Tokyo government soon.
Since 1972, when Japan and China established diplomatic ties, more than 30 pandas have either been sent to Japan or born there. Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara noted that these exchanges “have long contributed to improving public sentiment in both Japan and China.”