Japan's Last 2 Pandas To Be Returned To China

(NHK) The Tokyo Metropolitan Government says twin giant pandas at the city's Ueno Zoological Gardens will be returned to China by the end of next month. Japan will then be without the iconic bears for the first time since 1972.

The deadline for returning the four-year-old pandas Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei is February 20, 2026.

The metropolitan government had discussions with China on the timing of their return and announced that the animals will be returned to China by January 31, 2026. The return will take place after a 30-day quarantine at the zoo that starts on December 27.

Visitors can have a last look at the pandas at the zoo on January 25, when the quarantine period ends.

Officials simply said the pandas will go home ahead of the deadline because a Chinese facility will be ready to receive them by then.

The metropolitan government has been requesting that China loan new pandas. So far, it has not received an official response from Beijing.

A female panda at Oji Zoo in Kobe City, western Japan, died in March 2024. Four others at a theme park in Wakayama Prefecture, also in western Japan, were returned to China in June. The pair in Ueno are the last giant pandas in Japan.

Japan will be without giant pandas for the first time since the first ones from China arrived in 1972 to commemorate the normalization of bilateral ties.