Editor's note: When then Japanese Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei visited China in Sept 1972, China donated a pair of pandas to Japan. Since then, Japan has had perpetual "panda fever". Giant pandas have successfully captured Japanese people's hearts.
China and Japan are expected to reach a broad agreement on panda leasing during Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's planned visit to Beijing this week, bilateral sources close to the matter said.
A baby panda named Xiang Xiang is shown to media at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo prior to a limited public display on Dec 18, 2017. [Photo/IC]
The amusement park "Adventure World" in Shirahama-cho, Wakayama prefecture, Japan, celebrates the growth of the female twin pandas, and prepared ice cubes shaped as cherry blossoms and peach petals as gifts, on Mar 3, 2016. [Photo/IC]
A baby female Panda born on Aug 14 is shown to media at Adventure World in Shirahama, Wakayama prefecture on Sep 13, 2018. [Photo/IC]
A female giant panda named Shin Shin at Tokyo's Ueno Zoo in April 2013. Shin Shin is showing signs of being pregnant, a zoo official said on May 28, 2013. [Photo/IC]
Female giant panda Shin Shin is put on display at Tokyo's Ueno Zoo on March 19, 2014. [Photo/IC]
People view Xiang Xiang and her mother, Shin Shin at Tokyo's Ueno Zoo, Japan on Feb 1, 2018. [Photo/IC]
