Kang Kang

Basic Profile

Kang Kang (Chinese: 康康, studbook 122) was a male giant panda discovered in the wilds of Baoxing County, Sichuan Province in February 1972. He was selected alongside the female Lan Lan (兰兰, #123) as the Chinese government’s gift to Japan to commemorate the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan.

Journey to Japan

On September 29, 1972, China and Japan signed the Joint Communiqué normalizing diplomatic relations. As a gift of friendship, Beijing Zoo’s two most handsome pandas — Kang Kang and Lan Lan — were selected. On October 28, 1972, the pair flew aboard a special charter flight from Beijing to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. Upon arrival, they were greeted by Chief Cabinet Secretary Kakuei Tanaka’s administration official Susumu Nikaido, and escorted by police outriders with over 100 security personnel.

Life at Ueno Zoo

Kang Kang and Lan Lan made their public debut on November 5, 1972, drawing over 56,000 visitors — the largest single-day attendance in Ueno Zoo’s history. In 1973, annual zoo attendance reached 9.2 million, driven largely by the pandas’ popularity. Kang Kang’s keeper, Toshinori Tanabe, traveled extensively to find bamboo that Kang Kang would eat, and even used traditional Chinese medicine to treat his cold symptoms.

The pandas spawned a nationwide “panda boom” in Japan, inspiring anime productions including the 1972 film Panda Kopanda by Hayao Miyazaki and references in popular culture such as Chibi Maruko-chan.

Death

Kang Kang died on June 30, 1980 at Ueno Zoo. Following his death, Japanese Prime Minister Masayoshi Ōhira requested a new companion for the surviving female Huan Huan during his visit to China in 1979, and later the male Fei Fei was gifted in 1982. Kang Kang’s taxidermy specimen is preserved at Tama Zoological Park in Tokyo.

His legacy includes the NHK documentary Panda ga Kita! (2016) and various commemorative events held in 2022 to mark the 50th anniversary of China-Japan diplomatic normalization.