Oh man, I remember the iPhone 3G debut in Japan. I sat in line over night outside of the Harajuku SoftBank for...27 hours (I think?) I even got to shake Masayoshi Son's hand at some point that evening, when he visited the line.
I remember local pundits predicting that the iPhone would fall flat in Japan because "people like the tactility of buttons" and that "Japanese women would never take to touch screens because their long nails would make it hard to use." Boy, were they wrong.
I was a combat sports journalist (and grad student) at the time, reporting on the twilight days of the kakutogi boom for an international MMA news site, and so the iPhone was a godsend of a reporting tool. That need to report at the speed of information was why I sat in that crazy line.
While I very much agree that billionaire oligarchs have made life pretty unpleasant in the West, it's interesting that it was one of Japan's own billionaires in Son-san that pushed to bring the iPhone to Japan at a time when the likes of NTT Docomo and KDDI were quite content with doing their own thing. While very Galapagos indeed, I wonder: do you think that the introduction of the iPhone to Japan was a good thing in the end?
Ironically the iPhone did fall flat, briefly, because it lacked emoji support! But Son quickly convinced Jobs to have his engineers create a makeshift pallette for Japanese users, and it took off after that. Come to think of it, that's another way the iPhone transmitted Japanese sensibilities, because that's when Apple and Google realized emoji needed to be standardized and included on phones all over the world. (The fact no Japanese companies even thought of doing such is another example of Galapagos syndrome!)
Good question as to whether it was a good thing or not. It certainly shook up the local market. And it's hard to imagine life without a smartphone today. But now, almost two decades out, we know that smartphones (or more to the point, app / social media platform makers) warp reality in ways that we're still grappling with. So it's certainly not an unalloyed good.
I didn't know that bit about the iPhone 3G launching without emoji. Somehow, my memory of it was that it was always there! TIL!
I just realized another example of Galapagos syndrome that strikes real close to home, for me, at least: helplessly watching the kakutogi industry allow itself to weaken and die in the 2010s, giving way to the UFC's eventual monopoly. At the time, international fight fans could not easily find or consume the rich variety of combat sports Japan offered because Japanese promotions (large and small) didn't bother (at least not much) to market their product outside of Japan AND would vigorously DMCA strike any fight footage that found their way onto YouTube.
That had the dual effect of keeping Japanese combat sports history shrouded in mystery for anyone who wasn't already following the scene at the time, and largely killing off potentially new domestic interest because they weren't on free terrestrial TV anymore; just costly live events or PPV.
Not coincidentally, (non-boxing) kakutogi only started picking up steam again around the time of the pandemic thanks to the YouTube-native MMA show, "Breaking Down," the brainchild of Kai and Mikuru Asakura.
In this way, I feel that Galapagos syndrome basically helped kill a multi-million dollar industry. Now that it's tailor-made for YT, however, it's kinda back.
That is really interesting. I had no idea about that, thanks for sharing the context. I know pro wrestling is huge here so it makes sense there would be interest in combat sports.
Galapagos is definitely not limited to the tech world. Another example I can think of is how Japan failed to capture the energy drink market. There’s no reason that the world couldn’t be drinking Lipovitan instead of Red Bull except for lack of vision.
Great piece, Matt. I’ve been in Tokyo for 30 years, writing this at the bar in Propaganda (first time I’ve stepped in here in 20 years) and I earnestly hope that Japan’s creators and trendsetters continue not giving an f about the rest of the world and continue making what they love.
This is a really cool and refreshing take on Japanese culture. I liked it so much I read it twice. Well done, and thanks!
Oh man, I remember the iPhone 3G debut in Japan. I sat in line over night outside of the Harajuku SoftBank for...27 hours (I think?) I even got to shake Masayoshi Son's hand at some point that evening, when he visited the line.
I remember local pundits predicting that the iPhone would fall flat in Japan because "people like the tactility of buttons" and that "Japanese women would never take to touch screens because their long nails would make it hard to use." Boy, were they wrong.
I was a combat sports journalist (and grad student) at the time, reporting on the twilight days of the kakutogi boom for an international MMA news site, and so the iPhone was a godsend of a reporting tool. That need to report at the speed of information was why I sat in that crazy line.
While I very much agree that billionaire oligarchs have made life pretty unpleasant in the West, it's interesting that it was one of Japan's own billionaires in Son-san that pushed to bring the iPhone to Japan at a time when the likes of NTT Docomo and KDDI were quite content with doing their own thing. While very Galapagos indeed, I wonder: do you think that the introduction of the iPhone to Japan was a good thing in the end?
Ironically the iPhone did fall flat, briefly, because it lacked emoji support! But Son quickly convinced Jobs to have his engineers create a makeshift pallette for Japanese users, and it took off after that. Come to think of it, that's another way the iPhone transmitted Japanese sensibilities, because that's when Apple and Google realized emoji needed to be standardized and included on phones all over the world. (The fact no Japanese companies even thought of doing such is another example of Galapagos syndrome!)
Good question as to whether it was a good thing or not. It certainly shook up the local market. And it's hard to imagine life without a smartphone today. But now, almost two decades out, we know that smartphones (or more to the point, app / social media platform makers) warp reality in ways that we're still grappling with. So it's certainly not an unalloyed good.
I didn't know that bit about the iPhone 3G launching without emoji. Somehow, my memory of it was that it was always there! TIL!
I just realized another example of Galapagos syndrome that strikes real close to home, for me, at least: helplessly watching the kakutogi industry allow itself to weaken and die in the 2010s, giving way to the UFC's eventual monopoly. At the time, international fight fans could not easily find or consume the rich variety of combat sports Japan offered because Japanese promotions (large and small) didn't bother (at least not much) to market their product outside of Japan AND would vigorously DMCA strike any fight footage that found their way onto YouTube.
That had the dual effect of keeping Japanese combat sports history shrouded in mystery for anyone who wasn't already following the scene at the time, and largely killing off potentially new domestic interest because they weren't on free terrestrial TV anymore; just costly live events or PPV.
Not coincidentally, (non-boxing) kakutogi only started picking up steam again around the time of the pandemic thanks to the YouTube-native MMA show, "Breaking Down," the brainchild of Kai and Mikuru Asakura.
In this way, I feel that Galapagos syndrome basically helped kill a multi-million dollar industry. Now that it's tailor-made for YT, however, it's kinda back.
That is really interesting. I had no idea about that, thanks for sharing the context. I know pro wrestling is huge here so it makes sense there would be interest in combat sports.
Galapagos is definitely not limited to the tech world. Another example I can think of is how Japan failed to capture the energy drink market. There’s no reason that the world couldn’t be drinking Lipovitan instead of Red Bull except for lack of vision.
Great piece, Matt. I’ve been in Tokyo for 30 years, writing this at the bar in Propaganda (first time I’ve stepped in here in 20 years) and I earnestly hope that Japan’s creators and trendsetters continue not giving an f about the rest of the world and continue making what they love.
great read ! thanks
Absolutely terrific, Matt.