Japan has two honey bees, the native Apis cerana japonica (Japanese honey bee) and the imported Apis mellifera (Western honey bee). In 1877 (1), the Western bee was imported along with Langstroth hive to Japan. Due to its higher honey production (2), commercial beekeepers started keeping only Western bees after that. On the other hand, more and more people have started keeping Japanese bees as a hobby (3), using a simple hive called a pile box hive.
The Japanese honey bee is resistant to the varroa mite. Varroa mites originally only occurred in Asia, on the Asian honey bee.
Unfortunately I cannot export queens to other countries. Unlike Western honey bees, it is challenging to rear queen bees of Japanese honey bees. Therefore, queen bees of Japanese honey bees are not commercially reared or sold in Japan.
We started keeping Japanese honey bees over 20 years ago as hobbyists. We started a company to share this type of hive and beekeeping technique.