Overview
- Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei are set to leave Tokyo on Tuesday, which will leave Japan without giant pandas for the first time since 1972.
- Ueno Zoo’s final viewing was restricted by lottery to 4,400 slots, drawing roughly 108,000 applications and limiting fans to one-minute looks.
- The twins were born in 2021 at Ueno but are owned by China under loan rules, and they are scheduled to arrive at a Chinese facility on Wednesday.
- Prospects for replacements remain unclear as relations worsen after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s Taiwan remarks, with China cutting flights, warning travelers, imposing trade measures and delaying a Japanese consul’s approval; a Chinese spokesperson instead welcomed Japanese to see pandas in China.
- An economics professor estimates the absence of pandas could cost the Ueno area about 20 billion yen in annual activity.