SHIRAHAMA, Japan, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- Eimei, a giant panda that has lived in Japan for 28 years, was appointed a special envoy for Sino-Japan friendship in western Japan on Saturday.

Chinese Consul General in Osaka Xue Jian announced the designation at a ceremony held Saturday in Adventure World, an amusement park in Shirahama of Japan's Wakayama prefecture, where the panda dwells.

Eimei, or Yong Ming in Chinese, is a 30-year-old male panda and the oldest giant panda living in Japan. Coming from China in 1994, it is the father of 16 giant panda cubs born at Adventure World, setting the world record for being the oldest giant panda to have successfully bred in captivity.

Noting that this year marks the 50th anniversary of the normalization of China-Japan diplomatic relations and the first visit by a giant panda to Japan, Xue said as a symbol of friendship between China and Japan, the giant panda plays a unique role in promoting friendship between the two peoples and developing bilateral relations.

"I hope more Japanese people can turn love for pandas into love of humanity," said Xue, hoping that more Japanese people could feel closer to China, the hometown of pandas, through friendly ties between the two countries built by pandas.

Thanks to friendly cooperation between Adventure World and the research base of giant panda breeding in China's Sichuan province, Wakayama and Sichuan forged a prefecture-province friendship relationship in January this year, said Shuhei Kishimoto, governor of Wakayama prefecture, in a written speech.

In the future, Wakayama prefecture will continue to develop friendly relationship established by Eimei and endeavor to promote exchanges between Japan and China, said the governor.

Adventure World has announced that Eimei will return to Chengdu research base of giant panda breeding in February next year along with his twin daughters Ouhin and Touhin. There will be only four giant pandas in the park. Enditem

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