TOKYO, Japan — The scene is reminiscent of a public memorial to fallen star or royal family member, stolen before the public could let go: Mourners lining up to sign the condolence book (10,000 names signed so far) and dozens of flowers and stuffed animals surrounding the pictures of their beloved, lost one. A woman, arriving at the elaborate shrine, breaks down into giant sobs, collapsing into the arms of her husband.

Thousands have flocked to the elaborate shrine.

This has been the continuous sight outside the panda exhibit at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo, Japan, after its 22-year-old panda, Ling Ling, died. The only giant panda that belonged to Japan, the zoo suddenly finds itself without a panda for the first time since 1972. And it’s why China’s President Hu Jintao’s announcement that his country would be gifting Japan two pandas is such a powerful gesture to this panda-obsessed nation.

To people outside Japan, the gift may simply seem like a slick political move. Send over a couple of fuzzy bears and presto, a nice picture for the evening news. But Japanese people prize anything that’s kawaii, which means cute, in Japanese. Stroll through Tokyo and you’ll see uber-cute cartoons on every corner, every advertisement, and on the clothes and key chains of most residents. Heck, even the police department has a fuzzy bear as its mascot, printed on the signs of all of its police stations. This nation takes cuteness seriously.

The panda, and the elderly Ling Ling in particular, epitomize kawaii. Throw in the fact that pandas are endangered and that’s enough to whip some Japanese people into a frenzy. Japanese government officials, noting the giant outpouring of grief over Ling Ling’s death, even publicly suggested a panda gift from China might ease their broken hearts.

It wouldn’t be the first time pandas have strengthened political ties between Japan and China. In 1992, Ling Ling arrived in Japan in exchange for a Japan-born panda to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the normalization of bilateral ties with China. But in the decades following the panda exchange, ties became strained and at the turn of the century, icy, over past war crimes and allegations that each was trying to re-write its history books. These nations have dueled over Tibet, food safety issues, gas exploration in the East China Sea. Japan, once the superpower of the East, greeted mainland Chinese tourists with a sense of haughty disdain.

But times have changed the world’s economic and political landscape. With Japan’s Prime Minister Fukuda and China’s President Hu, that once icy past is thawing to a new spring, say foreign ministry officials from both countries. The leaders inked a deal promising to work together and forge a healthier future for both countries.

And what more powerful way to cement this new phase of their friendship than with a pair of fuzzy, endangered, kawaii pandas. Just in the nick of time to heal a nation’s broken heart.

Watch video of mourners at the zoo