Japanese mobile phone culture

In Japan, mobile phones have become ubiquitous. In Japanese, mobile phones are called keitai denwa (携帯電話^?), literally "portable telephones," and are often known simply as keitai.

Much of the Japanese population own cellular phones, most of which are equipped with enhancements such as video and camera capabilities. As of May 2008, 31.3% of elementary school students, and 57.6% of middle school students own a cell phone, with many of them accessing the Internet through them. This pervasiveness and the particularities of their usage has led to the development of a mobile phone culture, or "keitai culture."

Japan was leading in mobile phone technology. The first camera phone J-Phone (Stylized as 写メール, which stands for Photo-Mail) started marketing during November 2000, and not only included a camera but also the function to send photo via messaging or E-mail, which made the phone extremely popular at the time. Technologies like 3G Mobile Broadband are also marketed in Japan before any other country.

Following are the main features of a mobile in Japan:

In recent years, some cellular phones even have the capability of being used as debit or credit cards and can be swiped through most checkout lines to buy products as varied as mascara and jet planes, as more and more companies offer catalogs for cell phones. These functionalities include:

Some newer models allow the user to watch movies and/or television. Most phones can be connected to the Internet through services such as i-mode. Japan was also the first to launch 3G services on a large scale. Users can browse text-only Internet sites, and many Japanese sites have sub-sites designed especially for cellular phone users. One of the most popular services allows users to check train schedules and plan trips on public transit.

Some mobile phones are waterproof, even in the high-specifications segment.

The wide variety of features, many original to or limited to Japan, lead to the term "Galápagos syndrome", as these resulting phones were dominant in the island nation of Japan, but unsuccessful abroad. This has since led to the term Gala-phone (ガラケイ, gara-kei^?) to refer to Japanese feature phones, by contrast with newer smart phones.

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