Japan risks being without a giant panda on its shores for the first time in more than half a century, as a diplomatic row with China looms over the most famous enclosure of Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo.
Ueno residents Xaio Xiao and Lei Lei, part of Beijing’s programme of “panda diplomacy” to lend the animals abroad as a symbol of friendship and normal bilateral relations, are to be sent to China in January. While their departure in early 2026 is long scheduled, deteriorating ties between Japan and China mean there are no plans to replace them.
Any move by China to leave Japan without pandas would extend and deepen a diplomatic row that erupted in November when Japan’s new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi speculated on potential Japanese military involvement in any war in the Taiwan Strait. Relations between Beijing and Tokyo are now at their most strained in years.