The footage shot at Adventure World in Wakayama Prefecture in 2021 shows the giant pandas raised in the park. (Asahi Shimbun file)

Photo/Illutration Mother Rauhin, left, and her twins play together in Shirahama, Wakayama Prefecture, on May 21, 2015. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

SHIRAHAMA, Wakayama Prefecture—Fans of the four remaining giant pandas at Adventure World here and local businesses are bracing for their return to China at the end of June, which the park announced on April 24. 

Officials of the theme park which includes a zoo, aquarium and amusement park, explained that the lease agreement for the hugely popular attractions is expiring.

After the four pandas leave for China, only two giant pandas will remain in Japan, at Tokyo’s Ueno Zoological Gardens.

Adventure World joined a Japan-China giant panda conservation joint project in 1994, and has raised 20 pandas since then. Of those 20, three came from China and the other 17 were born at Adventure World.

Currently, a 24-year-old female panda named Rauhin and her daughters, Yuihin, 8, Saihin, 6, and Fuhin, 4, live together in the park.

China owns all giant pandas, including those born in Japan.

According to the Adventure World, the conservation project period will end in August, and the four pandas will be returned to China at the end of June to avoid the extreme summer heat in Japan.

The park will talk to China about leasing other pandas in the future.

“We hope to build on our 30 years of experience and knowledge,” Koji Imazu, the park’s director, told reporters.

Meanwhile, the lease agreement of the two pandas being raised in Tokyo’s Ueno Zoological Gardens will expire on Feb. 20, 2026.

DIRECTOR APPRECIATES PANDAS’ ROLE

Upon learning that all four would be returned to China, many people in the town expressed hope that pandas would return to the zoo.

“I hope the pandas will relax in China, where there are excellent facilities and staff,” Imazu said and praised Rauhin for mothering many cubs at Adventure World.

Of Rauhin’s three children, who will return to China with their mother, Imazu said, “We hope that they will also be part of the breeding program.”

Adventure World is hoping to lease other pandas and is in negotiations with China.

Pandas are one of the big draws of the town.

“If the pandas are all gone, we’ll definitely feel the impact. Shirahama Station is even sometimes called ‘Panda Station.’ We really need pandas, even if it’s just one,” said the owner of a souvenir shop that sells panda stuffed animals in front of Shirahama Station.

The Chinese government used to give pandas at crucial moments of diplomacy.

In 1972, the country gifted two giant pandas named Kang Kang and Lan Lan to Tokyo’s Ueno Zoological Gardens to commemorate the restoration of diplomatic ties between the two countries.

Since 1984, China has focused more on the conservation of the species, and began leasing pandas to zoos in foreign countries for breeding research rather than giving them outright.

According to the leasing agreements, China retains ownership of all pandas, even those born in Japan. So, Japan must return them to China when the leases expire.

Currently, there are two giant pandas in Tokyo’s Ueno Zoological Gardens, which has raised 15 pandas. The two pandas, a male named Xiao Xiao and a female named Lei Lei, are twins born at the zoo in June 2021.

Their lease will expire in February 2026, so the Tokyo metropolitan government will seek another pair from China.

“We will make arrangements, including the possibility of leasing other pandas after returning the two,” said a Tokyo metropolitan official.

Kobe municipal Oji Zoo also had raised giant pandas. However, since the death of Tan Tan last year, who was the oldest panda in Japan, there have been no pandas in the zoo. The city also expressed its intention of requesting other pandas.

(This article was written by Shinichi Katsube, Naoaki Terasawa and Masato Tainaka.)

Related News