Java Beans are classes in Java that adhere to certain coding conventions. They are supposed to: 1. Implement Serializable. This marks them as classes whose instances can be serialized, e.g., bundled up into bytes for storage or transmission, and then rebuilt. 2. Have a public no-argument constructor. This allows tools and frameworks that work with beans to instantiate them generically. 3. Expose properties using getter and setter methods following a naming convention. For instance, a property `X` would have `getX()` and `setX(value)`. This allows tools/frameworks to inspect and interoperate with beans using Java's Reflection mechanism. Here's a simple Java bean example: ``` public class ExampleBean implements Serializable { private int x; public ExampleBean() {} public int getX() { return x; } public void setX(int x) { this.x = x; } } ``` Java Beans are primarily used within frameworks that prefer convention over configuration, such as JavaServer Faces (JSF) or Spring MVC. These frameworks use JavaBeans to encapsulate many objects into a single bean object, which can be easily transported across different parts of an application. JavaBeans are also often used for storing session state in web applications and setting up configuration in frameworks.