Popular twin pandas at a Tokyo zoo are set to return to their homeland in China in late January, officials said Monday, leaving Japan without a panda for the first time in about half a century.

Axar.az informs, citing AP, prospects for their replacement are not favorable either as ties between the two countries have deteriorated.

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

Their parents Shin Shin and Ri Ri returned home last year after China loaned them for breeding research in 2011.

The last day of public viewing for the 4-year-old twins will be Jan. 25, according to the Tokyo metropolitan government.

China sent the first pair of pandas to Japan in 1972 to mark the normalization of diplomatic ties between the two countries. Since then, Japan has never been left without a panda.

Giant pandas are native to southwestern China and serve as an unofficial national mascot. Beijing lends them to other countries as a sign of goodwill but maintains ownership over them and any cubs they produce.