The life of 25-year-old Ayaka Tanaka is busy, to say the least.
As head of a fast-growing organic rose producer, Tanaka routinely checks her farms on the outskirts of Tokyo, picks rose petals herself at harvest time and meets prospective clients during her days in the capital. She does all that while studying economics at university and taking English lessons with an eye on her business' future overseas expansion.
Rose Labo Co., with slightly more than a dozen employees, has been producing edible organic roses at a 3,300-square-meter farm in Fukaya, Saitama Prefecture, since it was established in 2015. She grows her plants hydroponically, avoiding soil so as not to require chemicals or pesticides.