Humanity & Nature Newsletter No.74 December 201810

Reporting the activities of FY2017 Young Researcher Support Fund and DGʼs Discretionary Fund　その１

However, in Japan as is now the case in various parts across the planet, there are diverse honeybee-related problems such as a decrease in nectar plants, a transformation in landscapes home to honeybees, the extensive use of agro-chemicals, a damage caused by parasitic mites, a decrease in beekeepersʼ population due to aging. Honeybees are like mirrors that reflect the environment in the specific area; exploring the environment through the lens of honeybees will illuminate its various dimensions‐not only agriculture, but also forestry, satoyama (= the Japanese cultural landscape), nectar plants, pesticides, green spaces, community development, and good living conditions. We attempt to explore a part of Japan's future through looking at the environment surrounding honeybees and the current situation of beekeeping.

Historical trajectory and currentsituation of beekeeping in Japan Tracing the historical trajectory of beekeeping in Japan might help us seek for possible scenarios of Japanʼs future. The first description of “bees (蜂)” on Japanese literature was found on “Chronicles of Japan (日本書紀)”: “In 643, the Prince of Baekje (百済) named Buyeo Pung (余豊璋) tried to free range bees at Mt. Miwa in Nara, but they never propagated”. Bees on this literature refer to Japanese honeybees (A. cerana), and beekeeping was already taking place across Japan, mainly in mountainous areas, in the Edo period (※2).

Co-designing the future with honeybeesReport by Maximilian Spiegelberg (FEAST Project Researcher)

Rika Shinkai (RIHNʼs Visiting Researcher) Christoph Rupprecht (FEAST Senior Project Researcher) Jingchao Gan (Nagoya University, former RIHNʼs Visiting Researcher)

AgingBeekeepers

Decrease inNector Plants

Imacts of Agro-chemicals

Impacts on Agricultural

Products

Lack of Beesfor Pollination

DisruptedEcological

Syetem

Any Difference in Beekeepers of Japanese Bees

and Western Bees

Not SufficientUnderstanding of

Beekeepers/Beekeeping?

towards Honeybees, Honey and the Environment

Bee SwarmRemoval

Over 90% of honey sold in Japan come from abroad

Mite DamageEg) Acarapis woodi

damage on Japanese bees

Import suspension on bees for pollination

Neonicotinoid

From decrease to gradual increase?

Decrease inBees

SocietyAdmin

BeekeeperLifeworlds

GeneralPublic

Things toResearch

Problems around Beekeeping and Honeybees in JapanThere are a wide range of reasons to cause a decrease in bee population. A transdisciplinary approach involving ecological and agricultural researches as well we knowledge from the society, governments, beekeepers and general public is necessary.

Comparison of Western Bee and Japanese Bee (in case of Worker Bee)

Western BeeApis mellifera

Japanese BeeApis cerana japonica

Size 12～ 14mm 10～13mmRadius of Activity Approx. 2～4km Approx. 2kmHoney Yield of Colony* Large（30～50kg） Small（5～10kg）Honey Extraction Tend to extract honey from

a single type of flowerExtract honey from multiple types of flower (multiple flowers honey)

*This could drastically vary depending on colony or nectar plants.

Western Bee

Yellowish Blackish

Wide

Japanese BeeSmaller than Western Bee

※1　There are various estimates regarding the economic value produced by pollinator insects. This amount is based on the following paper published in 2013. http://www.naro.affrc.go.jp/archive/niaes/techdoc/press/160204/

※2　During the Edo period, a number of publications with descriptions on biology of honeybees and beekeeping technology were published. In “Nihon sankai meisan zue (illustrated book of specialty of mountainous and seaside areas in Japan), Vol.2” (1799), it says “you can find honey production in every region”.

RIHN has a funding program called “Wakate Kenkyusha Sairyo Keihi (Young Researcher Support Fund)” to fund research activities of an individual young researcher or a group of young researchers beyond the framework of research projects. In this issue, we will introduce two of research activities which received the fund in FY2017. The first one is a group research to explore Japanʼs future through the lens of honeybees or mitsubachi in Japanese. Honeybees are needless to say important for beekeepers, but also for farmers via their indispensable role as a pollinator of agricultural crops. However, a decrease in their number has gotten more severe and their survival is threatened due to changes in their habitat and the nectar plants that they feed on, agricultural chemical spraying, parasitic mites and diseases. Despite the size of honeybees being less than 2cm, they may be able to showcase a microcosm of Japan's agriculture and environmental problems. Not only do honeybees provide us with delicious honey, but they are also indispensable for their absolutely necessary role as a pollinator of many types of vegetables and fruits. The economic value of so-called "pollination service" by pollinator insects, including bees, is extremely high; it is equivalent to 8.3% (about 470 billion yen) of Japan's agricultural output (excluding for animal feed and seed production) of about 5.7 trillion yen, 70% (about 330 billion yen) out of which is estimated to be contributed by wild pollinators (※1).

Mitsubachi Team with one of the beehive boxes installed at RIHN

Meanwhile in 1877, the Meiji Period, domesticated Western honeybees (A. mellifera) were brought to Japan together with the industrial beekeeping techniques via the United States, which gradually prompted the process of professionalizing and commercializing beekeeping. As per the table below, Western honeybees produce drastically more honey than Japanese honeybees, and they rarely abscond their hives even when their living conditions become unfit for their preference unlike Japanese honeybees. These advantages of the Western honeybees made it possible to earn revenues from beekeeping in comparison to rearing Japanese honeybees. Looking at the present state of beekeeping in Japan, we can find two distinct types; one being traditional beekeeping of Japanese honeybees and the other being commercial beekeeping. Professional beekeepers mainly keep Western honeybees and employ the following three methods of earning income: 1) harvesting honey in one particular

Perceptions

11

beekeepers had started beekeeping after retirement, they share the information/knowledge among fellow beekeepers, started to plant nectar plants in their vicinity and gift honey to their neighbors and friends, not only for their own consumption; this indicates an expansion of so-called “Mitsubachi network” among people and nature. 　The online survey targeted at the residents of Kyoto City illuminated a trend that while they look for cheap honey at supermarkets, they are willing to pay more for honey of Japanese honeybees. And, it was found out that they had a low level of awareness/knowledge about insect pollinators, honeybees and beekeeping in general, which definitely implies the need for some awareness raising and educational activities. In terms of urban beekeeping which has gained more popularity in recent years, the survey also highlighted that the respondents were hesitant to have bee hives in their vicinity, but they would consider it acceptable if it was a part of activities by a public administrative agency such as a school or local government, or a temple and shrine, with due formalities. On the one hand the survey revealed a future possibility of urban or community beekeeping, but on the other hand it also shed a light on the inevitable need to consolidate how to maintain safety for neighboring residents and gain their understanding.

Starting from a long-planned installment of hive boxes We have already presented some of these research results at the general meetings of the Association of American Geographers, the Japan Society of Lifology, and the Asian Apicultural Association, and several academic papers are currently in the writing. Another important milestone for our team is the installment of two hive boxes in the premises of RIHN that we planned and negotiated for a long time on August 3rd 2018, which is (un)official day of honey in Japan as the pronunciation of 83 resembles hachimitsu or honey. They are expected to attract a colony of wild Japanese honeybees: they tend to form a new colony in spring, thus we hope to attract the swarm to reside in these boxes in the next spring. If we are able to initiate beekeeping activities at RIHN, it would be possible for us to obtain samples of honeybees and honey on a continuous basis, which consequently enables us to grasp a better picture about nectar plants and pesticide spraying around the institute, and furthermore to develop it into an opportunity for environmental education for the visitors.

educational activities, greening promotion, and community development and how these activities are implemented on the ground. We conducted the following three research activities.

① Semi-structured key actor interviews with beekeepers in both urban Kyoto (but also in Osaka, Tokyo and Saitama) and mountainous areas (Nagano Prefecture).

② Beekeeper survey③ Consumer and citizen online survey in Kyoto regarding

honeybees, honey products and awareness about the environmental issues (n=700: as the basic data for implementing action plan)

The beekeeper survey consisted of an eight-page long questionnaire, covering a wide range of relevant issues from beekeeping activities (location of bee hives, the number of colony, the type of hive box, income, the amount of harvested honey etc) to awareness/knowledge about honeybees, beekeeping and the environment in general, and further to opinions about bee-related policy and greening promotion activities. Our team members visited various bee-themed events such as “Mitsubachi Summit 2017” at Tsukuba University, “the 5th Nihon Mitsubachi Seminar” at Kyoto Gakuen University, “the 40th Seminar of Honeybee Science Research Association” at Tamagawa University, the workshop of “Shimojo Village Yamamitsu Club” in the southern part of Nagano Pref., among many others, conducted the survey with the participants, which led to 386 responses from professional/side-business and hobby beekeepers across Japan.

Network expands while diverse problems surface　The analysis of the survey highlighted a number of differences between professional and hobby beekeepers, for example on the number of colonies they keep and the amount of honey produced as well as opinion towards honeybees. Hobby beekeepers tend to see honeybees as either a friend or pet/companion, but many of professional beekeepers consider them as livestock. We also found that many of the hobby

location, 2) harvesting honey, migrating from Kyushu to Hokkaido following the blossoming season of nectar plants, and 3) sales and rental of bees for pollination.

On the other hand, non-professionalhobby beekeepers are more likely to keep Japanese honeybees, and use various types of hives, reflecting and illuminating locality. Also, there are beekeepers who do not fall into one of these types with exactness, therefore are somehow located in-between professional and hobby beekeepers and/or side-business, or we can call their style as “half beekeeper, half X” leaning on the Japanese concept “half farmer, half X” of mixed incomes gaining recently in popularity especially among younger organic farmers. From an administrative perspective, Western honeybees are categorized as “livestock”, thereby it is required for beekeepers to file paperwork with the prefectures, usually the veterinary department. Hobby beekeepers, on the other hand, had not been required to do so up to the revision of the Beekeeping Promotion Act in 2012 that went into force in 2013. Thus, it indicates that the “overall picture” of beekeeping including hobby beekeeping has not been properly recorded and reflected in statistics for a long period of time.

Exploring the potentials of honeybees through the research on beekeepers lifeworlds We, the RIHN Mitsubachi Team, aim to amplify a research on beekeeper lifeworlds on a larger scale by looking at how honeybees, which play an indispensable role in humanʼs lives, are being kept whether for commercial or hobby purposes. Besides elucidating characteristics of locality (e.g. urban area and mountain area), of living environments and of the bees themselves (Western honeybees and Japanese honeybees), another objective of this research is to investigate the honeybeeʼ s potentials. This requires looking beyond the usual honey products and pollination services towards their role as environmental indicators, and contributors to

Transition of the number of beekeeping household

Revision of Beekeeping Promotion Act in 2012 (enacted in 2013). Legally, there is no distinction between Western bee and Japanese bee. In principle, it is necessary to report hobby beekeeping to the prefectural government. Some prefectures, however, don't require any paperwork to observe wild honeybees and harvest honey from their colony as it is not considered as livestock domestication.

14,000

12,000

10,000

8,000

6,000

4,000

2,000

0

No. of Household

２０１６

２０１５

２０１４

２０１３

２０１２

２０１１

２０１０

２００５

２００２

２００１

２０００

１９９９

１９９８

１９９７

１９９６

１９９５

１９９４

１９９３

１９９２

１９９１

１９９０

１９８８

１９８７

１９８６

１９８５

１９８４

１９８３

１９８２

１９８１

１９８０

１９７９

１９７８

１９７７

１９７６

１９７５

１９７０

１９６５

１９６０

RIHN Young Researcher Support Fund Project

■Research ThemeAssessing localized rural & urban socio-ecological beekeeping potential■Funding Period：September, 2017～March, 2018■http://feastproject.org/en/blog_intro-mitsubachiteam

Humanity & Nature Newsletter No.74 December 2018

Humanity & Nature Newsletter No.74 December 201812

On November 4, 2018, our team together with RIHN and Nakagyo Ward Office organized the RIHN Regional Community Seminar “Towards bee-friendly cities: co-creating urban futures” at Nakagyo Ward Office in Kyoto City, and to our great surprise more than 100 people joined the event. This seminar series is targeted at the general public and to promote thinking together about urban green space planning, and lifestyles/livelihood. In the beginning of the seminar, Ms. Kyoko Maeda, the author of the best-selling book “Spoonful of Honey” gave a keynote speech on the blessings brought by honeybees and various uses of honey. This was followed by a panel discussion of four key actors engaging in various practices in the city (Nakagyo Flower and Rooftop Greening Club, Wild Bird Society of Japan, Greenery Policy Promotion Office of the Kyoto City Construction Bureau, and an organic farmer), and the discussion of which actively involved the participants. 　 Furthermore, in FY2018, Maximilian Spiegelberg successfully got awarded the funding from the General Incorporated

Association, Act Beyond Trust for the research on neonicotinoid insecticides, which are considered to contribute to death en mass of honeybees. He is currently researching on “household goods” containing neonics together with Rika Shinkai. We also started collecting information online, using hashtag #38Yasashii Machi

High-spirited discussion took place with regards to urban greening, street plants and organic farming in urban areas among others during the panel discussion of RIHN’s Regional Community Seminar.

Co-designing the future with honeybees

Reporting the activities of FY2017 Young Researcher Support Fund and DGʼs Discretionary Fund　　その1

(honeybee-friendly cities) for the purpose of grasping various honeybee projects across Japan and ultimately creating a community development network centering on honeybees. We do hope to continue to develop this honeybee research in the future as employing “the lens of honeybees” provides us with a distinct view to look over our surrounding.

The venue was packed with approx. 100 participants. They raised various questions on urban beekeeping, how they can join urban greening activities and so on.

knack of tapping into diverse backgrounds Three out of four members of the RIHN Mitsubachi Team comes from outside of Japan. People often give us a puzzled look, asking why such an internationally diverse team is working on beekeeping in Japan. This research started off with a simple question raised by Maximilian or from a non-Japanese perspective: “Beehive boxes are installed in public parks in Germany, but I never see that in Japan. And, we can always find local honey at a supermarket in Germany, but the ones

we can find in Japan are mostly from abroad, and not from Japan.” Our expertise is completely different and diverse as well. Maximilian specializes in agriculture and agroecology, while Christoph focuses on urban greening and a decrease in agricultural land, which enables us to approach honeybees through different angles. On the other hand, Gan has long been conducting ethnographical fieldworks in the Shimoina area, Nagano Pref., which is known for traditional beekeeping of Japanese honeybees. I am an animal lover with backgrounds in zoolarchaeology and

ethnology. Funny enough, this led me to install two beehive boxes at home, which managed to attract a colony of wild Japanese honeybees in the spring of 2018. Torrid temperature in the following summer, unfortunately, caused the comb to melt to fall and the colony left my hive boxes. Those boxes are, however, currently installed at the premises of RIHN. I am grateful to have this opportunity to work together with this amazing team to carry out an interdisciplinary and cross-cutting research.

(Rika Shinkai)

Non-Japanese perspectives,

He is from Germany and applies trans- and inter-disciplinary methods to the research on organic/farmersʼ market, urban gardening and urban beekeeping.

Spiegelberg, Maximilian

Gan JingchaoShe is from China and specializes in folklore studies with her specific interests in food culture of sticky rice in Japan and China. She also works on festival and food culture in the Shimoina area, Nagano Pref..

(From L to R)　 Rupprecht, Christoph D.D.He is also from Germany and specializes in urban geography, urban ecology etc. He is currently carrying out the research on changing landscapes in agricultural land and green space.

Shinkai RikaHer expertise is in archaeology and ethnography. She is currently researching on traditional food culture and livelihood in the mountainous areas, while conducting interviews with beekeepers.

This is an English translation of the original article written in Japanese 「ミツバチとともに未来をつくる」on Humanity&Nature Newsletter No.74 (p.10-12) issued in December 2018. Translation by Yuko Kobayashi, FEAST Project, RIHN (in close collaboration with Maximilian Spiegelberg and Rika Shinkai).