In the nation's political epicenter -- Nagatacho, in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward -- cynics might be excused from regarding its most productive workers to be its honey bees.
Every morning since April 2, when beekeeper Seita Fujiwara installed his wooden hives on the roof of the Social Democratic Party headquarters, thousands of the insects have been flying from there across the road to the happy hunting grounds of the Imperial Palace gardens.
There, at this time of year, the nectar they seek is in abundant supply in the yellow and orange flowers of the yurinoki (tulip trees) planted on the sidewalk surrounding the moat. Before they started to bloom, Fujiwara says his bees instead sought out rape blossoms and cherry blossoms around the Imperial Palace, and elsewhere within a 4-km radius of their rooftop home.