Crowds line up at Japan’s Ueno zoo on first weekend since panda departure announced

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Pandas Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei have lived at Ueno zoo in Tokyo, Japan since they were born in 2021.

PHOTO: REUTERS

TOKYO – Crowds lined up on Dec 20 at Ueno zoo in Tokyo on the first weekend since it was announced that

twin giant pandas Xiao Xiao and his sister Lei Lei will leave Japan

A 45-year-old woman from Tokyo’s Taito Ward, where Ueno Zoological Gardens is located, said she had visited regularly to see the pandas, describing them as “adorable and soothing”.

She added the announcement of their departure for China was sudden and came as a “shock”.

“Of course I’d like new pandas to arrive, but with relations with China worsening, it may be difficult for now,” she said.

People of all ages lined up before the zoo opened despite the cold weather.

Children carrying panda plush toys were seen among the crowd.

Sino-Japanese ties have deteriorated sharply since Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi indicated in November that

Tokyo could authorise the Self-Defence Forces to act

With the prospect of a new loan of pandas by China uncertain, the departure of the twins means the animals, long cherished as a symbol of bilateral friendship since the first pair arrived in 1972, will no longer be present in Japan.

Earlier in December, the Tokyo metropolitan government said the four-year-old twins would leave for China in late January under