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. 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. For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.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. Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said pandas have long been loved by Japanese people and he hoped friendship through panda diplomacy between the two countries will