Hello, good-looking! What's your blood type?

Is it possible to summarize who “Japanese people” are? Of course not! However, it is easy to categorize them in personality groups… just draw a little blood.

Takeji Furukawa founded this way of thinking when he published: "The Study of Temperament Through Blood Type" in the early 1900s. Since then countless studies have be conducted to prove this social stereotype true. For example the University of Ochanomizu published results of A Natural Experiment with Time-series Data of 1978 - 1988 concluding that "blood-typical personality stereotypes actually influenced individuals’ personalities – self-reported personalities at least – in Japanese society and operated as a self-fulfilling prophecy, even though no scientific evidence for these stereotypes has been presented."

There are four different blood-types believed to reveal with the following personality characteristics:

• Type A: calm, perfectionist, most artistic, shy, conscientious, trustworthy, sensitive.
• Type B: goal oriented, strong minded, individualists.
• Type AB: split personalities, can be both outgoing and shy, confident and timid.
• Type O: sociable, outgoing, optimistic, creative and popular, confident, attention seeker.

Japanese purikura has an option to illustrate what blood type you are.

There are also certain compatibilities between blood groups. To test this further, I conducted my own study: a random selection survey in which I asked 20 Kansai Gaidai students about their opinions on this subject. 5 boy and 5 girl International students from various countries and backgrounds, as well as 5 boy and 5 girl Japanese students were asked the following questions:


International Students

1. Do you know your blood type?
2. Since your arrival to Japan, has someone asked you what your blood type is? How did this make you feel?
3. What does blood type mean to you?
   

Japanese Students

1. Do you know your blood type?
2. Have you asked someone about their blood type? Why?
3. What does blood type mean to you?

Most of the International Students didn't know their own blood type, 50% of the group said that they had been asked what their blood type is, and all of them said blood type is important for biological and medical purposes. The Japanese students, on the other hand, all knew their blood type, 70% of the group said they had asked someone else what their blood type is, most commonly when they met someone knew. All of the Japanese students said that the blood type explains personality or character. Some of the Japanese students also mentioned that the personality traits by blood type is just for fun.

Snap Shot: Split Personality. Takafumi Yamaguchi is a student at Kansai Gaidai. His blood type is AB. Before this picture was taken, Taka-kun was skillfully singing a song by The Killers and as soon as he saw the camera, he posed (see photo) and then went back to singing.

In Japan, blood-type horoscopes are also mentioned on the morning news and dating services may also cater to people based on their blood type.



The following links provided information for this blog post:

• The Japan Times:
  http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20061114aj.html


• Japanese Culture Site:
  http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art22988.asp


• Love and Personals:
  http://webcenters.netscape.compuserve.com/love/package.jsp?name=fte/bloodtype/bloodtype
  

For further reading on this subject check out these sites:

• Personality and Individual Differences: Blood Type and Personality:
  http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V9F-46JYKJX-3&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=869437d88620738e39bb8f2cf3ceea9d


• Blood Type Condom Machine:
  http://www.japanvisitor.com/index.php?cID=359&pID=329