By Ma Huaqing
Not only are Japanese businesses adversely affected by the Sino-Japanese tensions due to the Diaoyu Islands dispute, so are bilateral cultural exchanges. While anti-Japan fervor is still running high in China now, anti-China sentiment in Japan is also flaring up. Sendai City, which was supposed to welcome a pair of giant pandas from China later this year, had no choice but to reject the pair of cuddly visitors from Sichuan.
After the Great East Japan Earthquake devastated the city on March 11 last year, China agreed to loan a pair of giant pandas to Sendai City to cheer up children in the disaster zone. The plan was confirmed last December when top leaders from both countries met.
Sendai’s city government said it received many emails opposing the pandas’ arrival. The most common reason turned out to be “concern that Sendai may be mistaken as biased towards China”. As the voice of anti-Japan activists was overwhelmingly loud, the Sendai City Assembly had no choice but to consider whether or not to reject the pair of pandas.
China’s “panda diplomacy” dates back to the Tang Dynasty, when Empress Wu Zetian sent two giant pandas as gifts to the Japanese Emperor. In Japan today, giant pandas are seen as a major symbol of the Sino-Japanese relationship. The pair of pandas were to be leased to Yagiyama Zoological Park in Sendai’s Taihaku Ward as a symbol of the 40th anniversary of the resumption of diplomatic ties between the two countries.
”It’s precisely because they are too symbolic, we dare not take the risk,” said a member of the Sendai City Assembly.
Unfortunately, giant pandas have also become a political tool. On June 28, Tokyo’s claptrap nationalist governor Shintaro Ishihara told the press that it would be a good idea for the newly-born panda cubs in Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo to be named after “Senkaku” (尖阁) — “Jianjian” (尖尖) and “Gege” (阁阁) — and given back to China.