Panda fans in Japan jostle for last glimpse of China-bound twins

Thousands of panda fans in Japan flocked to the Ueno Zoological Gardens in Tokyo on January 25, 2026, to bid farewell to the last two giant pandas in the country. Xiao Xiao and his sister Lei Lei are scheduled to return to China on January 27, leaving Japan without pandas for the first time in half a century. Prospects for a new panda loan by China remain uncertain amid deteriorating Sino-Japanese relations.