Japan’s panda capital is losing its pandas. What comes next?

Adventure World has been home to pandas for nearly 31 years. (Yumi Asada/CNN via CNN Newsource)

They came, dressed in black and white, wearing furry hats, and clutching banners and soft toys. With tears in their eyes and sobs in their throats, they waited patiently in line under the scorching sun for one last glimpse before it was all over.

Pandas have become huge celebrities in the Japanese town of Shirahama. Over three decades, their presence at the local Adventure World zoo has drawn hundreds of thousands of visitors whose love for the cute creatures has elevated them to cult status and put the town on the map.

But now, the four pandas of Shirahama — Rauhin, age 24, and her daughters Yuihin, 8, Saihin, 6, and Fuhin, 4 — are leaving. Though they were all born in this town, the pandas ultimately belong to China, which began lending pandas to Shirahama in 1994. This year, China declined to extend the agreement and summoned them back to their ancestral home. No more are due to take their place.

In Japan’s panda capital, facing a future without its bears, the public was bereft. “Being here brought back so many memories,” wept Shiori Sakurai, one of many panda fans turning out to bid farewell at a ceremony on June 27. “And I realized, I really don’t want them to go. Let’s meet again, OK? I’ll keep loving you every single day.”

“It’s simply sad,” said Mihoko Ninomiya, joining the crowds at the Adventure World for the last time with her daughter and granddaughter — “three generations of panda fans” who have made monthly pilgrimages to see the bears. “We’ve been coming here since my daughter was a little girl,” she said. “We will miss them terribly.”

Separation from the bears will be tough for Shirahama, a resort destination tucked away on the southern coast of Japan just 90 miles south of Osaka. Reminders of their fluffy, black-and-white faces are everywhere, from trains and buses to restaurants and souvenir shops.

Known as Panda Town, it has long hosted crowds of visitors seeking panda-themed vacations, the highlights of which are watching their favorite bears hugging trees, munching on bamboo and somersaulting in their enclosures.

The bears — also called “panda” in Japanese — have for decades been an economic lifeline for the town’s 20,000 people. With the departure of the final four pandas, the town is in limbo.

Katsuhiro Miyamoto, a professor emeritus of economics at Kansai University, estimates that the town has generated 125.6 billion yen (US$870 million) in revenue from the panda economy over the past three decades. “The pandas are the biggest draw for tourism, and without them, the number of tourists will drop,” he tells CNN. Without the animals, the town could lose up to 6 billion yen (US$41 million) per year, equivalent to 40% of Shirahama’s annual budget, he says.

It will lose 200,000 tourism visitors per year, he estimates, and that decline will cause job losses and accelerate depopulation, forcing younger generations to move to other cities for better work opportunities.

A walk around the town lays bare how heavily Shirahama’s tourism industry relies on these bears loaned from China. Hotels offer panda-themed rooms. Vending machines are covered in manga versions of the bears. Restaurants serve bowls of ramen and desserts with panda-tastic twists.

Satsuki Kitai runs a souvenir shop near the Shirahama train station, selling panda plushies and panda-themed snacks. She says the family business, which has been around for nearly 80 years, derives 40% of its revenue from the sales of panda souvenirs. “When something had a panda on it, it was easy for customers to pick it up,” she tells CNN.

“We haven’t really decided whether we’ll gradually phase them out or keep them as ‘panda memory,’” she adds. Other business owners in the town are pondering the same choice.

Scenic Shirahama was once famous for its onsens, or hot springs, said to be among the oldest in Japan. But after their lure began to fade in the late 20th century, the town reinvented itself by centering its appeal around Youhin and Eimei, the first two pandas it received from China in 1994.

For 31 years, that bet has paid off, thanks to Japanese people’s love for the cuddly animals. It was apparently good for the pandas, too: Rauhin’s partner, Eimei, fathered a total of 16 cubs with her and a previous female panda, Meimei, seen as the most successful panda breeding program outside of China. But now what?

Panda diplomacy

It’s not just a matter of finding another source to replace the bears. China lends pandas to countries, including the US, as goodwill ambassadors and to strengthen trade ties. In Shirahama, unfortunately, this “panda diplomacy” seems to have run its course.

Typically, pandas are loaned for 10 years, while cubs born in zoos overseas are returned to China by age four. Beijing’s decision to offer or extend existing panda agreements is based on various factors — a move experts say can be linked to deteriorating diplomatic ties.

While it’s unclear why China declined to extend the contract with Shirahama, Masaki Ienaga, an associate professor of international relations at the Tokyo Woman’s Christian University, believes politics may be at play. Last year, Shirahama elected Yasuhiro Oe, a politician who takes a pro-Taiwan stance.

That may have upset China, Ienaga says. Cross-strait relations have long been a sensitive issue, with China’s ruling Communist Party claiming the self-ruling democracy of Taiwan as its own. “China thinks the Taiwan issue is something it cannot ignore,” says Ienaga.

Oe told CNN that he was aware of the suggestion but rejected the possibility. “I’m the head of a small town of 20,000 people,” he says, “and just because I have relations with Taiwan, will China say ‘return the pandas’ and demand all four back?”

In response to CNN’s enquiries, China’s Foreign Ministry reiterated that Taiwan is “purely China’s internal affairs.”

“Some Japanese politicians should be mindful of the lessons of history…and be cautious in their words and deeds on the Taiwan issue,” it said.

The spokesperson’s office added that China and Japan have maintained exchanges on panda protection.

But Ienaga notes that even if Beijing decides to send more pandas to Japan, it’d be unlikely that they would return to Shirahama if politics were behind the current decision to end the panda lease.

Oe says he has a few solutions to the impending tourism crisis up his sleeve, one of which involves playing to his strength — getting more travelers to come from Taiwan.

“What’s easy to understand is that I’m asking for help from the people in Taiwan with whom I have a relationship,” he says.

Despite the bears’ departure, the Japanese train operator JR West has said it will continue to operate a panda-themed service connecting the town with Kyoto and Osaka.

But like souvenir shop owner Kitai, who is struggling to deal with the traces of the pandas left behind, Oe is less certain about the future.

At the entrance of the government building, a sign reads: “Shirahama, the town of pandas.”

“We’re wondering what I should do with that sign, too,” he says.

Japan still has two pandas at the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo. But their lease is due to expire next year. And many attending the farewell ceremony at the Adventure World zoo felt a personal relationship with the pandas in Shirahama.

The zoo’s director, Tatsuko Nakao, who has looked after the pandas since day one, reminisced over her first encounters with the bears as she flicked through an album of old photographs. “I never imagined she would become such a wonderful mother,” she said, looking at a picture of Rauhin. She said she believes it’s for the best that Rauhin gets to retire with her daughters in China, where she gets better bamboo.

Eimei, the father panda, was “my teacher,” she said. Before the age of the internet, when information about the species was scant, Nakao spent a lot of time observing him. He was sent back to China in 2023 and died there earlier this year at the age of 32.

Also among those saying farewell was Tomomi Miyaji, who recalled how she struggled with the prospect of motherhood until watching a documentary about Adventure World’s panda mother, Rauhin, giving birth.

“I felt encouraged that I could do it too,” she told CNN.

To honor Rauhin, Miyaji even took inspiration from Yuihin, one of Rauhin’s cubs, when naming her own daughter.

“I feel like crying. Just thinking about the fact that this place will be empty from tomorrow brings tears to my eyes.”

Article written by Yumi Asada, Hanako Montgomery and Chris Lau, CNN