Photo/Illutration Visitors watch the giant pandas Ri Ri and Shin Shin at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo's Taito Ward on Sept. 28, a day before their return to China. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

The term “hitoyose panda” (crowd-puller panda) was popularized by former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka.

In 1981, despite being a defendant in the Lockheed bribery scandal, he proved his strong popular appeal by attracting massive crowds when he appeared to support candidates campaigning for the Tokyo metropolitan assembly election.

Tanaka called himself a hitoyose panda as he went around to make campaign speeches for candidates.

“Even though I am being pilloried like this, if asked, I come to help just as you see,” he reportedly said, making the audience laugh.

He might have been recalling the Japanese people’s frenzy over the pair of pandas Lan Lan and Kang Kang, gifts from China that arrived during his tenure as prime minister.

The association of pandas with long lines of people to see the cute animals likely started from there. And they remain hugely popular to this day.

Even after standing in line for a long time, one only gets to see them for a few minutes. Yet, to bid farewell to Ri Ri and Shin Shin, who were returning to China, there was a long line before the opening of Ueno Zoo on Sept. 28, including those who had stayed overnight.

Born in Sichuan province, the two were childhood friends. They came to Japan in 2011, right before the devastation caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake. They have raised three children together.

Watching them take care of their playful and mischievous plush-like cubs often made people delighted. Many people likely see their 13 years in Japan superimposed on the history of their own family.

The two pandas departed Japan on Sept. 29, which coincidentally marks the date in 1972 when then Prime Minister Tanaka and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai signed the Japan-China Joint Communique.

Lan Lan and Kang Kang were gifted in commemoration of that event.

The communique includes this sentence: “The two countries should, and can, establish relations of peace and friendship.”

In these turbulent times between Japan and China, we want to highlight this phrase in bold once again.

—The Asahi Shimbun, Sept. 29

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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