Last 2 pandas in Japan leave for China

The four-year-old male-female twin pandas left the zoo aboard a truck.

They will be transported by aircraft from Narita International Airport in Chiba Prefecture, near Tokyo, to China's Sichuan Province.

There are strong calls in Japan for getting replacements, but it is uncertain whether China will agree to loan new pandas amid deteriorating relations between the two neighboring countries following Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's remarks about a potential Taiwan contingency.

There may be a long absence of pandas in Japan, which have served as a symbol of the two countries' friendship, pundits say.

Giant pandas first came to Japan in 1972.

Kang Kang and Lan Lan, a male-female pair, were gifted to Ueno Zoo by China to commemorate the year's normalization of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Pandas were also raised at the Adventure World theme park in the town of Shirahama, Wakayama Prefecture, from 1994 and at Kobe Oji Zoo in the city of Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, from 2000, both in western Japan.

Since all giant pandas raised in Japan are on loan from China for breeding research purposes, however, their ownership remains with China, including for those born in Japan.

Although there were at one point a total of more than 10 pandas in the three facilities, Ueno Zoo's Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei became the only remaining pandas in Japan after the rest died or were returned to China for reasons including the expiration of lease contracts.

The twin pandas are scheduled to arrive in China on Wednesday.

They will be quarantined at the China Giant Panda Protection and Research Center's Ya'an Bifengxia base in the inland province of Sichuan, where their 20-year-old mother Shin Shin and eight-year-old sister Xiang Xiang live.