Japan will be without giant pandas for the first time in half a century: the last two animals are being returned to China, symbolically ending the era of "panda diplomacy" amid deteriorating Japanese-Chinese relations and rising geopolitical tensions. This is reported by Kyodo News, as conveyed by UNN.
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Japan is preparing for a symbolic end to a long chapter in its relations with China: for the first time in 50 years, there will be no giant pandas left in the country – public favorites and an important element of China's "soft power."
The Tokyo government confirmed that the last two pandas – twins Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei – will be removed from Ueno Zoo on January 25, Kyodo News reports. The animals, born in Japan in 2021, will return to China in accordance with the terms of the lease agreement, which stipulates that all rights to offspring belong to the PRC.
Their parents, Ri Ri and Shin Shin, were returned to China in 2024, and their older sister, Xiang Xiang, left Japan a year earlier. After China took four pandas from a park in Wakayama Prefecture in June 2025, the Ueno twins remained the only representatives of the species in the country. Their departure effectively concludes the history of "panda diplomacy," which began in 1972 with the arrival of the first pandas in Tokyo as a sign of the normalization of Japanese-Chinese relations.
According to media reports, the likelihood of Beijing sending new pandas to Japan is almost non-existent. Escalating geopolitical tensions have severely impacted bilateral relations, particularly after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's statement in November, in which she called a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan an existential threat to Japan and allowed for the involvement of the Self-Defense Forces.
The Chinese side reacted sharply, emphasizing that the Taiwan issue is an internal affair of the PRC. Against this backdrop, the Chinese Foreign Ministry avoided a direct answer regarding the continuation of the panda lease program, redirecting the request to "competent authorities."