Tokyo, Dec 16 (EFE).- Hundreds of people queued for more than three hours on Tuesday to see Japan’s last two pandas at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo, a day after it was confirmed they will return to China a month earlier than expected.
The January-end departure of twins Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei will leave the archipelago without any pandas for the first time since 1972, amid a cooling of relations between Tokyo and Beijing following comments by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Taiwan.
China owns all pandas worldwide and loans them to zoos under conservation agreements. Interest in seeing the animals one last time has been so strong that Ueno Zoo has been forced to cap daily visitors to the panda enclosure at 4,800 and limit viewing time to one minute per person, the zoo said in a statement.
The public will be able to see Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei from next Tuesday through the final day on Jan. 25, with advance reservations required, the zoo added.
The diplomatic tensions between Japan and China have raised doubts over whether Beijing will allow new pandas to be sent to the country after the February deadline to return the pair.
The return of the twins follows another in June, when four pandas living at the Adventure World complex in Shirahama, in central Wakayama prefecture, were sent back to China after Beijing decided not to extend the loan agreement.
China’s use of ‘panda diplomacy’ dates back decades and took firm root in Japan with the arrival of the first pandas at Ueno Zoo, the country’s oldest, in 1972 following the normalization of relations between the two nations.
Since then, Japan has hosted and bred more than 20 pandas, welcomed with great enthusiasm by the public and seen as symbols of friendship between the two countries.
At Ueno Zoo alone, Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei generated an economic impact of more than 30 billion yen (nearly $194 million) in their first year on public display in 2021, according to estimates by Katsuhiro Miyamoto, emeritus professor of economics at Kansai University. EFE
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