For more than half a century, pandas have helped serve as ambassadors for China around the world, but their time in Japan appears to be drawing to a close with the last two bears in the country set to return next month.
Hopes of receiving new ones soon appear dim given the current tensions between the two countries.
Tokyo’s metropolitan government has reportedly been in talks with China about receiving new pandas, but there is no sign of agreement in the wake of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comments about Taiwan last month.
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On Monday, the city’s authorities said they would return four-year-old twins Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei, who were born at Ueno Zoo but were always destined to be returned to China.
The announcement comes after four pandas kept at a wildlife park in central Japan were returned to China in June.
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Pandas have been used by China as a long-standing symbol of friendship with other countries. The tradition of panda diplomacy may date back to the Tang dynasty (618-907), when two “white bears” – generally believed to be giant pandas – were sent to Japan.