The Tokyo metropolitan government is negotiating with China to extend the 10-year loan period of two giant pandas, Ri Ri and Shin Shin, Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike said on Friday. The 15-year-old pandas are currently kept at Tokyo's Ueno Zoo and are expected to return to China, which has their ownership, in February next year when their contract expires.
The pandas, born in Sichuan Province, China, arrived in Japan in February 2011.
Their three-year-old female child, Xiang Xiang, is slated to return to China in December. Given this, it is feared that there will not be a panda at Ueno Zoo if the parents are also returned to China.
At a press conference on Friday, Koike said she would refrain from disclosing specific details as they are matters for negotiations. However, the metropolitan government is in the final phase of negotiations with China to extend the panda couple's stay for five years, an official concerned said.
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