Blood types in Japanese culture 血液型

February 17, 2010

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Type A
Best traits	Earnest, creative, sensible
Worst traits	Fastidious, overearnest
Type B
Best traits	Wild, active, doer
Worst traits	Selfish, irresponsible
Type AB
Best traits	Cool, controlled, rational
Worst traits	Critical, indecisive
Type O
Best traits	Agreeable, sociable, optimistic
Worst traits	Vain, rude

There is a popular belief in Japan that a person’s ABO blood type or ketsueki-gata (血液型) is predictive of their personality, temperament, and compatibility with others.

Ultimately deriving from ideas of historical scientific racism, the popular belief originates with publications by Masahiko Nomi in the 1970s. The scientific community dismisses such beliefs as superstition or pseudoscience.

HISTORY

The ABO blood group system is widely credited to have been founded by the Austrian scientist Karl Landsteiner, who found three different blood types in 1900. Ethnic studies did show different blood group distributions across the world (e.g. Asian people having a higher percentage of Type B). This fact was used by Nazis to further ideas of supremacy over different races. Those distortions were debunked before Nazi Germany invoked race laws like the Nuremberg Laws, where the wording “German blood” is figurative for Aryan lineage.

In 1926 Rin Hirano and Tomita Yashima published the mythology “Blood type biological related” in the medical journal of army. Just like the ones before it, it was a non-statistical and unscientific report, motivated by racism.

In 1927, Takeji Furukawa, a professor at Tokyo Women’s Teacher’s School, published his paper “The Study of Temperament Through Blood Type” in the scholarly journal Psychological Research. The idea quickly took off with the Japanese public despite his lack of credentials, and the militarist government of the time commissioned a study aimed at breeding the soldiers. The study used no more than ten to twenty people for the investigation.

In another study, Furukawa compared the distribution of blood types among two different ethnic groups, the Formosans in Taiwan and the Ainu who live in Northeast Asia, especially Hokkaidō. His motivation for the study appears to have derived from a political incident. After the Japanese occupation of Taiwan following Japan’s victory over China in 1895, the inhabitants tenaciously resisted their occupiers. Insurgencies in 1930 and in 1931 killed hundreds of Japanese settlers.

The purpose of Furukawa’s studies was to “penetrate the essence of the racial traits of the Taiwanese, who recently revolted and behaved so cruelly”. Based on the finding that 41.2% of a Taiwanese sample had type O blood, he assumed that their rebelliousness was genetically determined. The reasoning was supported by the fact that among the Ainu, whose temperament was characterized as submissive, only 23.8% had type O. In conclusion, Furukawa suggested that the Japanese should intermarry more with the Taiwanese in order to reduce the number of Taiwanese with type O blood.

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. Because of this he has been heavily assailed by the Japanese psychological community, although his books are phenomenally popular.

Current popularity

Discussion of blood types is widely popular in women’s magazines as a way of gauging relationship compatibility with a potential or current partner. Morning television shows feature blood type horoscopes, and similar horoscopes are published daily in newspapers. In addition, a series of four books that describe people’s character by blood type ranked third, fourth, fifth and ninth on a list of best selling books in Japan in 2008 compiled by Tohan Corporation.

Although there is no proven correlation between blood type and personality, it remains popular with the many matchmaking services that cater to blood type. In this way, it is similar to the use of astrological signs in the west, which is also popular in Japan. Asking one’s blood type is common in Japan, and people are often surprised when a non-Japanese does not know his or her own blood type.

Many idols, tarento and other Japanese celebrities include a blood type statistic in their profiles, in addition to other facts such as their hobbies and star sign.

It is common among anime and manga authors to mention their character’s blood types, and to give their characters corresponding blood types to match their personalities. Some video game characters also have known blood types, such as in the Street Fighter series, the King of Fighters series, the Soul series, the Final Fantasy series, the Resident Evil series, the Melty Blood series, the Guilty Gear series, and the Dead or Alive series, which lists character blood types in both the manual and in-game biographies. In addition, it is common for video game series, such as Gungriffon, Tekken, Metal Gear Solid 2, Princess Maker and Loveplus to allow for blood type as an option in their creation modes.