Japan, in many ways, has turned inward.  Amid economic stagnation, a plummeting population and growing anxiety about Japan’s place in the world,  there is a fear that Japan might withdraw even further.

Japan’s  “Galapagos syndrome,” (a.k.a. Jalapagos) is what the Japanese call when they develop a product that evolves isolated from world markets. The term comes from the Galápagos Islands where Darwin studied plants and animals that were genetically isolated.  On a basic level, it refers to “technology [that] evolves in complete isolation from international standards.” The phrase was originally coined to describe Japanese cell phones that were so advanced they had little in common with devices used in the rest of the world. This concept, however, has the potential to  spread to other parts of society — and many signs suggest it is already happening.

Much of what we see happening in Japan can be attributed to a plethora of social and economic turbulence.  Witness, for example, the dramatic number of hikikomori or shut-ins who have given up on social life (see blog post Larry Curly and…Moe?) and who have become completely detached from society.  In many ways, this type of behavior is just the tip of the iceberg.

Another example of the pervasive isolation in Japan is Kodokushi (“lonely deaths”) — which refers to people who die alone, and go months – or even years – before somebody notices the body.   In 2008 in Tokyo, more than 2,200 people over 65 died lonely deaths, according to statistics from the city’s Bureau of Social Welfare and Public Health. The deaths most often involve men in their 50s and the nation’s rapidly increasingly elderly population. Today, 1 in 5 Japanese is over 65; by 2030 it will be 1 in 3. With senior citizens increasingly living away from family and a nationwide shortage of nursing homes, many are now living alone.

Japan’s two-decade economic slump is definitely a contributing factor to all of this. The percentage of the workforce employed in part-time, temporary and contract work has tripled since 1990, forcing workaholic Japanese businessmen, many of whom never married, into a lonely early retirement.  We will likely see this trend continue into the future, especially as its products, society, way of life, etc.  have evolved separately, in many ways, from the rest of the world.