is a term of Japanese origin used in business studies to refer to an isolated development branch of a globally available product. The term is used as an analogy to a part of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. Darwin encountered in the Galápagos Islands isolated flora and fauna, which had undergone evolutionary changes independently from the mainland. This phenomenon was a key to the development of evolutionary theory. Darwin stated that due to the differences in environment from one island to another, species adapted to make survival more viable in the local environment of each island. Similarly, a development of goods "in relative isolation from the rest of the world because of a focus on the local market" can lead to similarly differing products.
The term "Galápagos syndrome" has been used as a metaphor outside the field of business jargon. The term "Galápagosization", referring to the process of the isolation of Japanese "Galápagos-thinking", links this process to the Japanese island mentality.
Examples in Japan
Technology
Mobile phones
The term "Galápagos syndrome" was originally coined to refer to Japanese 3G mobile phones, which had developed a large number of specialized features that were widely adopted in the Japanese market, but were unsuccessful abroad. While the original usage of the term was to describe highly advanced phones that were incompatible outside of Japanese networks, as the mobile phone industry underwent drastic changes globally, the term was used to emphasize the associated anxiety about how the development of Japanese mobile phones and those in the worldwide economy went along different paths. A derived term is , blending with , used to refer to Japanese feature phones, by contrast with newer smart phones. Takeshi Natsuno, professor at Tokyo's Keio University, explained, "Japan's cellphones are like the endemic species that Darwin encountered on the Galápagos Islands—fantastically evolved and divergent from their mainland cousins." "Japanese phones suffer from 'Galapagos Syndrome'—are too complex to survive abroad."
Cash machines
Across Japan, the majority of the 190,000 ATMs do not accept bank and credit cards that have been issued outside of the country. According to an April 2022 article, only about 20,000 post offices and convenience stores allow retrieving cash using non-Japanese bank cards. The Japanese government has expressed concern about this issue, and as a result the number of ATMs that accept foreign cards is slowly increasing.
Wallet phone
In 2004, the wallet phone was introduced in Japan as a means to allow mobile payment alongside numerous other applications. In some ways the wallet phone can be seen as a predecessor of mobile payment tools that were later released on the global market such as Apple Pay or Google Wallet.
Kei cars (軽自動車) Kei cars ("light cars") are small four-wheeled vehicles/cars that have an engine of less than 660cc and enjoy preferential treatment in the form of tax advantages and lower insurance costs. Originally the Japanese government encouraged the use of those "light cars". This category of cars features a number of different car types including sport cars, minivans and commercial vehicles. However, Kei cars are not seen as profitable in export markets and therefore are only part of the Japanese automobile market. Despite no significant global success, major Japanese car manufacturers such as Suzuki, Mitsubishi, Daihatsu and Honda still produce models belonging to the Kei car category. Since the Kei car has a significant portion of Japanese car market, Japanese auto makers cannot ignore them. Although the regulatory differences between Kei cars and 1L cars are quite small, the tax benefit of Kei cars is considerable. Until the tax reform in 2013, the Kei car's vehicle tax rate was a quarter of that of 1L cars (¥7200 to ¥29500). This significantly lower tax rate gathered much criticism from European and US auto makers, and as such the EU, the US, and Toyota do not make Kei cars. In 2013, the Japanese government revised the vehicle tax law. The new vehicle tax law became effective in 2015. With the new vehicle tax law, the Kei car's vehicle tax rate is about 36% of that of 1L cars (¥10800 to ¥29500).
Handling the Japanese Galápagos syndrome
There are many associated issues with the inability to compete on the international export market. In order to revive the parts of the Japanese economy that have suffered from the "Galápagosization", affected businesses had to find the reasons responsible for the development.