In Japan everyone apparently knows his or her own blood type and want to know yours. This preoccupation with blood types is apparently firmly entrenched in Japanese popular culture and people use blood types to identify matches in jobs, friendships and of course loooooove;-).

It seems people with blood type A are meticulous in everything they do, whereas type Bs are unpredictable, creative types who go their own way; type Os are go-getters with an authoritarian streak, and ABs are rational, some say even cold hearted individuals. Of course there are more than four types of personality, but true believers attribute difference to environmental factors.

Claiming personality runs in the blood may not be as silly as it sounds. How often have you heard people say something like - "those walsh boys are pretty wild"? Quoting from MangaJin, on author claimed that blood group A people make very careful, long term plans, however, other group A people dot plan ahead at all. Now how can u argue with inductive logic like that? This kind of fence-sitting has drawn some criticism, and all the wild assertions made about personality types based on blood are not based on "scientific" evidence or fact.

Japanese debate about blood types began back in the 1920's and 30's in reaction to western racism which asserted that Asians were lower in the evolutionary chain because the most common Asian blood type is B, which is not common in Caucasians but common in animals.

Popular interest in the connection between blood types and personality re-emerged in 1971 when Nomi Masahiko wrote "What Blood Types Reveal About Compatibility", a book now in its 240th printing. As in any self-respecting capitalist society, products are marketed to cater to the different blood types - soft drink, lighters, keyholders and even condoms (All the condoms are the same but there is a note inside advising that the sexual encounter should be approached with sensitivity or frankness, depending on the blood type).

For a society so modern and sophisticated it seems strange people are so caught up in the mumbo jumbo of blood types. According to Mangajin, many Japanese sniff at the idea of there being any connection between blood types anbd personality, but they still ask new acquaintances what blood type they are.

-Linda Hopkins

Kindly reprinted with the permission of Mangajin .