The day the giant pandas Kang Kang and Lan Lan arrived in Japan on Oct. 28, 1972, Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, the effervescent, pioneering television personality with a lifelong panda obsession, simply couldn’t sit still.

She just had to see the cuddly pair, a gift from China and the first pandas ever to set foot in Japan.

Calculating how long it would take for their transport truck to reach Tokyo’s Ueno Zoological Gardens from Haneda Airport, she slipped out of a drama rehearsal, calling out, “I have an urgent matter to attend to, so I’ll be taking my leave now!”

Kuroyanagi, affectionately known as Totto‑chan, recalls in her memoir “Totto Hitori” (Totto alone) that........

© The Asahi Shimbun