Galápagos syndrome

Galápagos syndrome (ガラパゴス化, Garapagosu-ka^?, / Galápagos effect) is a term of Japanese origin, which refers 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 led to evolutionary changes. This phenomenon was a key to the development of evolutionary theory. Darwin stated that in the biological isolation species have evolved to develop different characteristics, allowing adaptation making them more viable in the local environment. 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.

The term "Galápagos syndrome" was originally coined to refer to Japanese 3G mobile phones, which had developed a large number of specialized features and dominated Japan, but were unsuccessful abroad. Whilst the original usage of the term was to describe highly advanced phones that had no use outside Japan, 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 Gara-phone (ガラケー, gara-kei^?), blending with "mobile phone" (携帯, keitai^?), used to refer to Japanese feature phones, by contrast with newer smart phones.

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