Japan: Two old women always retire – Crowds bid them farewell

Japan’s beloved elderly giant pandas Shin Shin and Ri Ri returned safely to China yesterday, Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo announced on its website.

The two pandas arrived at Ueno Zoo in 2011, lightening the mood in Japan a few months after the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit the country on March 11 of that year, and have continued to attract people of all ages over the years.

When it was announced a month ago that the pair of elderly giant pandas would soon return to China to undergo treatment for high blood pressure, many people visited the zoo to see their two beloved pandas before they left.

Hiyori Sakurai, a 30-year-old artist, said she visited the zoo every Sunday and sometimes even during the week when she could get time off from work.

“Whenever I was having a hard time, I went to see Ri Ri and Shin Shin and they always cheered me up,” she said.

Etsuko Tokunda, a self-employed woman in her 60s, noted that she has been going to the zoo almost every day since it was announced that the elderly panda couple would return to China.

“Every day was important to me. I wanted to see them even if they were sleeping,” he said.

The giant pandas, a native species of China, have become over the years “ambassadors of friendship” of their country and the offer from China pandas to other countries has been called “panda diplomacy”.

Saturday was the last day visitors could see Shin Shin and Ri Ri at Ueno Zoo. However, their twin children, who were born in June 2021, will remain there.

Although she was sad to see the panda couple leave Japan, “the fact that Ri Ri and Shin Shin are returning together as a couple to their homeland made me a little happy,” said retiree Harumi Iteguchi.