Hey Baby, What's Your Blood Type?
I remember reading through old Saint Seiya manga back in college, wondering why they always write the blood type of each character along with their name, age and astrological sign, and now I know: in Japan, it's believed that you can tell a lot about a person's personality and character traits from his blood type. Type A people are neat, tidy, and plan things meticulously, almost to a fault. Type B are "going my way" (as the Japanese say), meaning that they do their own thing without worrying about the opinions of others, and don't plan things out in advance. They can be messy, and tend to act on impulse, too -- I am type B, and my wife is always commenting on why do some things I do based on my blood type. Type O people have a private world inside their minds, supposedly, and they're quick to become passionate about something, but then change to something else just as easily; type O people make good leaders. Finally, AB people have "two faces," one that they make in front of some people and another one they keep to themselves. Could there be something to it all? If you're feeling the urge to get into Japan's fun blood type culture, we've gotten in some cool phone straps today that let you announce your blood type to everyone.
Blood types mean a lot in Japan.
posted by Peter in Japan at 8:15 PM
12 Comments:
and I have no idea what my blood type is :P
I think it's kind of silly, though It doesn't really bother me as long as nobody takes it too seriously. Heard of a guy getting dragged by his girlfriend to the doctors to make sure he wasn't a particular type, luckily he wasn't, makes me wonder what she wouldve done tho O_O
2:26 AM
Yes, it's silly. The Japanese are always flabbergasted that none of the gaijin staff at J-List knows their blood type ^_^
3:01 AM
Of course it's silly. That's part of the fun of these things. Rational Westerners don't typically put full faith in such superstitions but that doesn't stop the combini down the street from stocking little scrolls with horoscopes on them. Besides, we always get a kick out of it when something hits the nail on the head even though it isn't a frequent occurrence. That said, as a type-O that description pretty much fits me.
Do they concern themselves with the positive/negative aspect of blood types?
3:16 AM
There is a nice write-up on the history behind this superstition on wikipedia
I guess it's the lot of us ABs to be the worst off where stereotypes are concerned, it being the least common blood type - the nail sticking out and all that jazz.
4:50 AM
I wonder what they think of the negative/positive aspect on the blood types...could take probabilities to a greater height!
I'm O-
5:03 AM
@Brenda They think nothing of it. While most japanese know their type, they are painfully unaware of their Rh state, the one thing that would actually have a concrete impact on a relationship in the case of a pregnancy (which you as an Rh- woman must be aware of).
5:08 AM
Rune, actually when they have TV specials on blood types the B's get shown as sloppy, selfish, etc. which is probably true (I'm a B, as my wife always tells me). There has been public outcry against this since you're basically harming the reputations of millions of people without basis. I think it's illegal to ask blood type on a job application.
Brenda, yes for all that they have blood type of every Lucky Star character charted, I've never heard mention of plus or minus.
11:09 AM
According to this article on The Japan Times Online Bs and ABs are the 'worst' and thus most discriminated against bloodtypes. I would also tend to think that (in words borrowed form here that 'AB is considered the worst blood type. In predictability-loving Japan, they're loose cannons.' This is not the first site I have come across ranking ABs at the bottom. Once again I will claim that the reason for this is mmore to do with it being the most rare. B being the second rarest accounts for the negative image sticking to that as well. Not too surprising is it that the most common blood type O, is also considered the best - being a nail that is firmly hammered into the japanese wood.
6:41 PM
If you love the japanese vending machines, have a look at this article about blood type myths for the nice pictures of blood type condom vending maching.
6:54 PM
Hmmm, seems that the address I pasted for the link in the above comment got caught in some fancy php code and ends up redirecting to the main page. This time it should work
7:54 PM
I believe the blood type/personality thing in Japan was introduced by the Nazis during WWII to try to raise "racial awareness" in their Axis allies. Few Japanese are aware of this point.
2:03 PM
You are wrong gaijin_samurai. It was indeed rooted in racism, but was not introduced to Japan by nazi-Germany. The nazis did indeed try to use bloodtypes in homeland propagande, but this is unrelated to the Japanese phenomenon.
"Takeji Furukawa's paper "The Study of Temperament Through Blood Type" [was published] in the scholarly journal Psychological Research [in 1927.]... The fad faded in the 1930s as its unscientific basis became evident. It was revived in the 1970s with a book by Masahiko Nomi, a lawyer and broadcaster with no medical background. Nomi's work was largely uncontrolled and anecdotal, and the methodology of his conclusions is unclear." (from the wikipedia article I linked to in comment #4)
9:16 PM
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