There is a popular belief in
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
that a person's
ABO blood typeThe ABO blood group system is the most important blood type system in human blood transfusion. The associated anti-A antibodies and anti-B antibodies are usually IgM antibodies, which are usually produced in the first years of life by sensitization to environmental substances such as food,...
or is predictive of their personality, temperament, and compatibility with others, similar to the
Western worldThe Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term that can have multiple meanings depending on its context...
's
astrologyAstrology is a group of systems, traditions, and beliefs which hold that the relative positions of celestial bodies and related details can provide information about personality, human affairs, and other terrestrial matters. A practitioner of astrology is called an astrologer...
. This belief is also widespread in
South KoreaSouth Korea, officially the Republic of Korea and often simply referred to as Korea, is a country in East Asia, located on the southern half of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by China to the west, Japan to the east, and North Korea to the north. Its capital is Seoul, the second largest...
.
Ultimately deriving from ideas of historical
scientific racismScientific racism is the use of scientific or ostensibly scientific findings and methods to investigate differences between races, often to support or validate racist attitudes and worldviews. It is based on belief in the existence and significance of racial categories, typically with a hierarchy...
, the popular belief originates with publications by
Masahiko NomiMasahiko Nomi was a Japanese journalist who advocated Takeji Furukawa's idea of Japanese blood type theory of personality. He was also known as a sumo essayist....
in the 1970s. The scientific community dismisses such beliefs as
superstitionSuperstition is a credulous belief or notion, not based on reason, knowledge, or experience. The word is often used pejoratively to refer to folk beliefs deemed irrational. This leads to some superstitions being called "old wives' tales"...
or
pseudosciencePseudoscience is a methodology, belief, or practice that is claimed to be scientific, or that is made to appear to be scientific, but which does not adhere to an appropriate scientific methodology, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, or otherwise lacks scientific status...
.
The ABO blood group system is widely credited to have been founded by the Austrian scientist
Karl LandsteinerKarl Landsteiner , was an Austrian biologist and physician. He is noted for his development in 1901 of the modern system of classification of blood groups from his identification of the presence of agglutinins in the blood, and in 1930 he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. With...
, who found three different
blood typeA blood type is a classification of blood based on the presence or absence of inherited antigenic substances on the surface of red blood cells...
s in 1900.
There is a popular belief in
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
that a person's
ABO blood typeThe ABO blood group system is the most important blood type system in human blood transfusion. The associated anti-A antibodies and anti-B antibodies are usually IgM antibodies, which are usually produced in the first years of life by sensitization to environmental substances such as food,...
or is predictive of their personality, temperament, and compatibility with others, similar to the
Western worldThe Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term that can have multiple meanings depending on its context...
's
astrologyAstrology is a group of systems, traditions, and beliefs which hold that the relative positions of celestial bodies and related details can provide information about personality, human affairs, and other terrestrial matters. A practitioner of astrology is called an astrologer...
. This belief is also widespread in
South KoreaSouth Korea, officially the Republic of Korea and often simply referred to as Korea, is a country in East Asia, located on the southern half of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by China to the west, Japan to the east, and North Korea to the north. Its capital is Seoul, the second largest...
.
Ultimately deriving from ideas of historical
scientific racismScientific racism is the use of scientific or ostensibly scientific findings and methods to investigate differences between races, often to support or validate racist attitudes and worldviews. It is based on belief in the existence and significance of racial categories, typically with a hierarchy...
, the popular belief originates with publications by
Masahiko NomiMasahiko Nomi was a Japanese journalist who advocated Takeji Furukawa's idea of Japanese blood type theory of personality. He was also known as a sumo essayist....
in the 1970s. The scientific community dismisses such beliefs as
superstitionSuperstition is a credulous belief or notion, not based on reason, knowledge, or experience. The word is often used pejoratively to refer to folk beliefs deemed irrational. This leads to some superstitions being called "old wives' tales"...
or
pseudosciencePseudoscience is a methodology, belief, or practice that is claimed to be scientific, or that is made to appear to be scientific, but which does not adhere to an appropriate scientific methodology, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, or otherwise lacks scientific status...
.
History
The ABO blood group system is widely credited to have been founded by the Austrian scientist
Karl LandsteinerKarl Landsteiner , was an Austrian biologist and physician. He is noted for his development in 1901 of the modern system of classification of blood groups from his identification of the presence of agglutinins in the blood, and in 1930 he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. With...
, who found three different
blood typeA blood type is a classification of blood based on the presence or absence of inherited antigenic substances on the surface of red blood cells...
s in 1900.
EthnicEthnology is the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity.-Scientific Discipline:Compared to ethnography, the study of single groups through direct...
studies did show different blood group distributions across the world (e.g.
Asian peopleAsian people or Asiatic people is a demonym for people from Asia. However, the use of the term varies by country and person, often referring to people from a particular region or subregion of Asia...
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 GermanyNazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany between 1933 and 1945, while it was led by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker's Party . The name Third Reich refers to the state as the successor to the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages and the German...
invoked race laws like the
Nuremberg LawsThe Nuremberg Laws of 1935 were antisemitic laws in Nazi Germany which were introduced at the annual Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg. The laws classified people as German if all four of their grandparents were of "German or kindred blood", while people were classified as Jews if they descended from...
, where the wording "German blood" is figurative for
Aryan lineageThe Ahnenpass documented the Aryan lineage of citizens of Nazi Germany.The investigation for lineage was not obligatory as it was a major undertaking to research the original documents for birth and marriage...
.
The theory was first introduced to Japan in 1916 by Dr Kobayashi Sakae(小林栄) and Hara 来復 (原来復). Their mythology was made up from non-statistical basis. He learned blood type mythology in Germany. Once used as evidence in contrary to Takeji Furukawa's mythology,
In 1926 Rin Hirano and Tomita Yashima published the mythology "Blood type biological related" in the
medical journal of army. It was the non-statistical and unscientific report, just as those previous ones, made up with the 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
AinuThe are an indigenous ethnic group of Japan. Historically they spoke the Ainu language and related varieties and lived in Hokkaidō, the Kuril Islands, and much of Sakhalin. Most of those who identify themselves as Ainu still live in this same region, though the exact number of living Ainu is...
who live in Northeast Asia, especially
Hokkaidō, formerly known as Ezo, Yezo, Yeso, or Yesso, is Japan's second largest island and the largest, northernmost of its 47 prefectural-level subdivisions. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshū, although the two islands are connected by the underwater Seikan Tunnel...
. 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 1895The First Sino-Japanese War was a war fought between Qing Dynasty China and Meiji Japan, primarily over the control of Korea...
, 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 Taiwanese should intermarry more with the Japanese in order to reduce the number of individuals 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 NomiMasahiko Nomi was a Japanese journalist who advocated Takeji Furukawa's idea of Japanese blood type theory of personality. He was also known as a sumo essayist....
, 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
horoscopeIn astrology, a horoscope is a chart or diagram representing the positions of the Sun, Moon, planets, the astrological aspects, and sensitive angles at the time of an event, such as the moment of a person's birth. The word horoscope is derived from Greek words meaning "a look at the hours" In...
s, 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
matchmakingMatchmaking is any process of introducing people for the purpose of marriage.In some cultures, the role of the matchmaker was and is quite professionalized. The Ashkenazi Jewish shadchan, or the Hindu astrologer, were often thought to be essential advisors and also helped in finding right spouses...
services that cater to blood type. In this way, it is similar to the use of
astrological signAstrological signs represent twelve equal segments or divisions of the zodiac. According to astrology, celestial phenomena reflect or govern human activity on the principle of "as above, so below", so that the twelve signs are held to represent twelve basic personality types or characteristic...
s 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
idolsIn Japanese culture, are media personalities in their teens and early twenties who are considered particularly cute and pretty and who will, for a period ranging from several months to a few years, regularly appear in the mass media, e.g...
,
tarentois a Japanese rendering of the English word "talent" and is used as a catch-all term for mass media personalities who regularly appear on television. Detractors of the phenomenon have referred to it in an English sense as "famous just for being famous" because many that fall into this career line...
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
animeis animation originating in Japan. The world outside Japan regards anime as "Japanese animation". Anime originated about 1917.Anime, like manga , has a large audience in Japan and high recognition throughout the world...
and
mangaManga consist of comics and print cartoons , in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 20th century...
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, commonly abbreviated as SF, is a popular series of fighting games in which the players pit competitive fighters from around the world, each with his or her own special moves, against one another. Capcom released the first game in the series in August 1987..-Street Fighter :Street Fighter made its...
series, the
SoulSoul is a weapon-based fighting game series by Namco Bandai Games. The series revolves around a sword that, after years of bloodshed and hatred, gained a soul of its own, the Soul Edge, and the sword forged to counter it, Soul Calibur...
series, the
Final Fantasyis a media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi, and is developed and owned by Square Enix . The franchise centers on a series of science-fantasy console role-playing games , but includes motion pictures, anime, printed media, and other merchandise...
series, the
Resident EvilResident Evil, known in Japan as , is a video game series and media franchise consisting of comic books, novelizations, films, and a variety of collectibles, including action figures, strategy guides and publications...
series, the
Melty Blood, is a visual novel and fighting game, co-developed by dōjin circles Type-Moon and French-Bread, originally released at Comiket on December 2002...
series, the
Guilty Gear series, and the
Dead or Alive series, which lists character blood types in both the manual and in-game bios. In addition, it is common for video game series, such as
GungriffonGungriffon is a series of video games developed by Game Arts. Originally on Sega consoles, this series has made more recent appearances in Gungriffon Blaze on PlayStation 2 and Gungriffon: Allied Strike on Xbox. The Gungriffon games are focused on piloting mecha—large, usually bipedal military...
,
Tekken,
Metal Gear Solid 2,
Princess Makeris a series of Japanese life simulation bishōjo games by the computer game and anime production company Gainax. The first Princess Maker, while popular enough to be translated into Chinese, was never released in the United States of America. Princess Maker 2 was translated by for a North American...
and
Love Plus to allow for blood type as an option in their creation modes.
See also
- My Boyfriend Is Type B
My Boyfriend is Type B is a South Korean romantic comedy film for the year 2005. The basic premise of the film comes from the Japanese blood type theory of personality, which claims that a person's blood type can determine their personality traits...
-- Korean romantic comedy based on the idea of blood type personality.
Further reading
- Toshitaka Nomi and Alexander Besher, You Are Your Blood Type: the biochemical key to unlocking the secrets of your personality. New York: Pocket Books, 1988. ISBN 0671633422
- Laura Miller, People Types: Personality Classification in Japanese Women's Magazines, The Journal of Popular Culture, Vol. 11, No. 2, Fall 1977, pp. 436-452.
External links