TOKYO – Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remarks on a Taiwan contingency have irked China, casting a shadow over prospects for new pandas coming to Japan as the return deadline for the twin cubs currently at a zoo in Tokyo approaches in February.
Large crowds continued to visit Ueno Zoological Gardens on Nov 22 as the farewell nears for the giant pandas, Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei. They are currently the only pandas in Japan, drawing significant public interest.
The two pandas, born in 2021, are slated to be sent to China under a bilateral lease agreement.
One fan expressed concern about the escalating political tensions, saying, “Pandas might disappear from Japan altogether.”
At the zoo, bustling with visitors over the three-day weekend, a 42-year-old company employee from Kyodo prefecture said pandas are “special animals that soothe people just by being seen”, and urged that they remain at Ueno.
His five-year-old daughter said: “I would feel sad if the cute pandas were gone,” while holding a stuffed toy of the animal.
In June, all four giant pandas on loan at a zoo in Wakayama prefecture departed for China, leaving only the Ueno pair in Japan. Wakayama and Kyoto prefectures are both in the Kansai region, several hundred kilometers from Tokyo.
Earlier in November, Ms Takaichi said a Taiwan emergency involving the use of military force by China could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, possibly allowing it to
exercise the right of collective self-defence
.
A Chinese daily reported on its social media platform that if the present circumstances persist, Beijing may suspend new panda loans, citing an expert who warned that Japan could lose access to the animals.
Mr Yukinori Yokomi, secretary-general of the Japan-China Friendship Association, a public interest incorporated group based in Tokyo, said he fears that exchange programmes will eventually disappear. KYODO NEWS
