A method for manufacturing a gallium nitride semiconductor device includes: preparing a gallium nitride wafer; forming an epitaxial growth film on the gallium nitride wafer to provide a processed wafer having chip formation regions; perform a surface side process on a one surface side of the processed wafer; removing the gallium nitride wafer and dividing the processed wafer into a chip formation wafer and a recycle wafer; and forming an other surface side element component on an other surface side of the chip formation wafer.