A giant panda cub was born in a Tokyo zoo Monday for the first time in five years, with both Japanese and Chinese people, even in political circles, sharing the good news.
The Ueno Zoological Gardens said the mother, the 11-year-old Shin Shin, and her newborn, whose sex remains unknown, appear to be in good health.
"This is very joyful," Japan's top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga told a regular press conference. "I want the cub to grow up vigorously and healthily."
Suga also said a giant panda, loved by so many people for its charming face and gestures, is "one of the great testaments to the Japan-China friendship."
Shin Shin's previous cub died in 2012 just under a week after being born at Japan's most famous and oldest zoo, which opened in 1882.
Sino-Japanese relations have often been dogged by wartime issues, but China also welcomed the birth of the new panda cub.
"This is good news," Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said during a press briefing in Beijing. "A giant panda has always been a friendly envoy of China with other countries, and we also hope the panda will play a bigger role in promoting the friendship between Chinese and Japanese nationals."
Shin Shin and her male partner, Ri Ri, arrived at the Ueno zoo in February 2011 on loan from China.
She was seen mating with Ri Ri on Feb. 27 and had been showing signs of pregnancy, including loss of appetite and increased lethargy, from around May 16, prompting the zoo to remove her from public view.
The expectant mother started moving restlesslyinside her cage from Saturday and the zoo confirmed her water broke Monday morning, followed by the cub's first cry at 11:52 a.m., it said.
The same pair had a cub in July 2012 through natural mating, the first in 24 years at the zoo in Taito Ward, but it died from pneumonia six days after birth.
Shin Shin was also thought to be pregnant in 2013, but it later proved to be a false alarm.
Giant pandas are born very small and premature, with a newborn weighing 100 to 200 grams, roughly a thousandth of its mother.
Chinese experts have said that in the cases of first birth for mother pandas, 60 to 70 percent of cubs die within the first week.
"Shin Shin is taking care of the cub in a calm way," the zoo's director Yutaka Fukuda said in a press conference. "It is our pleasure that a new life was born here and we will strive to make it grow safely with a lot of care."
Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike said the metropolitan government plans to solicit ideas on the cub's name from the public.
Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, actress and honorary chair of the Panda Protection Institute of Japan, told reporters in Tokyo, "This is the happiest moment of my recent life," calling pandas "the symbol of peace."
"I don't know when I will be able to see it but I'm looking forward to visiting the zoo," said the TV personality and UNICEF goodwill ambassador.
Panda-linked stocks rose sharply on the news, with Ueno-based Chinese restaurant chain Toh-Ten-Koh Corp. shares temporarily jumping by the day's allowable limit to end at 224 yen, up 6.7 percent from Friday, as investors speculated more people would come to the area to see the panda, according to dealers.
