Forget Chanel, Cartier and H&M, the buzz on Ginza — long Tokyo's most glitzy shopping and entertainment district — is now all about . . . honeybees.
That's because more than 300,000 Western and Japanese honeybees are being kept there on the roof of the 11-story Pulp & Paper Building by members of the Ginza Honey Bee Project. Every morning, the bees take to the air from their wooden hives and disperse throughout the neighborhood in search of flowers from which they collect pollen and sugary nectar — returning later with the pollen collected in "baskets" on their hind legs and the nectar, from which they make honey, stored in a specialized extra stomach.
This year already, the group has collected more than 760 kg of honey, so making a solid contribution to its production in a country where the shortage of bees and beekeepers is a serious concern, according to Atsuo Tanaka, co-founder of the three-year-old project.