Japan's Honey & Beekeeping Culture

About this book

Japan eats more honey than almost any country in Asia — yet most of it arrives by ship. This book is about the other honey: the small, distinctive crop made inside Japan itself, by bees working Japanese flowers in Japanese weather, under the care of Japanese keepers.

200 entries in five parts, each in one fixed format — Region, Nectar Source & Season, Type, and Visiting & Checking. The acacia plains and linden forests of Hokkaido and Tohoku, apple and cherry pollination country, and the short, intense northern summer. Ginza's rooftop hives, the orchard basins of Kanto and Chubu, and the historic beekeeping country of Gifu. The mandarin terraces, plum and lemon pollination and island honey of Kansai and Chugoku. The yuzu valleys, strawberry glasshouses and subtropical flows of Shikoku and Kyushu. And a closing part on the traditions themselves — the native Japanese honey bee, the migratory circuit, rental pollination and the tasting culture around the hive.

Health claims are not this book's business: it is a cultural and culinary survey of honey regions, apiaries and beekeeper traditions, told in terms of sweetness, aroma and colour. Practical details change with the season, so every entry closes by pointing you to the official pages to confirm before you travel.

Written and created in Japan by Japanese author Aki Wakamatsu. Published by Takikawa TOKOTOKO Kids LLC, a Japanese publisher in Hokkaido, Japan. Authentic Japanese content, carefully made in Japan — not mass-produced.