Japan's Last 2 Pandas to Return to China in Jan.

Tokyo, Dec. 15 (Jiji Press)--The only two giant pandas remaining in Japan will be returned to China in late January, it was learned Monday.

Xiao Xiao, male, and Lei Lei, female, are twins born at Tokyo's Ueno Zoo in 2021. But they are to be sent to China, which holds their ownership, by February 2026 under an agreement between the Tokyo metropolitan government and the China Wildlife Conservation Association, metropolitan government sources said.

Their departure will put an end to nearly 55 years of panda conservation efforts in Japan, which started in 1972 with the arrival of Kang Kang and Lan Lan, a male-female pair, at the zoo in the capital's Taito Ward to mark the diplomatic normalization between the two countries.

The zoo temporarily saw all its pandas gone in the past. But Japan's panda projects continued at other zoos, including Adventure World in Shirahama in Wakayama Prefecture, western Japan.

The Wakayama zoo returned all remaining pandas to China in June, making Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei the only pandas in the country.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]