First time in 50 years: no pandas in Japan

Thousands of people queued Tuesday at Tokyo's Ueno Zoological Gardens, a day after officials announced that its popular twin pandas will return to their homeland in China next month.

The twins, Xiao Xiao and his sister Lei Lei, were born at Tokyo's Ueno Zoological Gardens in 2021 and raised there, but they remain on loan from China and will be returned by February.

Their departure will leave Japan without a panda for the first time in about half a century.