Blood types in Japanese culture
| Type A | |
|---|---|
| Best traits | Earnest, sensible, reserved, patient, responsible and cautious. |
| Worst traits | Fastidious, overearnest, stubborn, tense, obsessive and pessimistic. |
| Type B | |
| Best traits | Passionate, active, creative, animal loving, flexible, cheerful and optimistic. |
| Worst traits | Irresponsible, forgetful, selfish, lazy, impatient, unreliable and "going own way". |
| Type AB | |
| Best traits | Cool, controlled, rational, sociable, adaptable and intelligent. |
| Worst traits | Critical, indecisive, unforgiving, two-faced, aloof and "split personality". |
| Type O | |
| Best traits | Confident, self-determined, ambitious, strong-willed, intuitive, agreeable, competitive and athletic. |
| Worst traits | Self-centered, cold, aggressive, unpredictable, arrogant, envious and ruthless. |
In East Asian countries, a person's ABO blood type or ketsueki-gata (血液型?) in Japanese and hyeol-aek-hyeong (혈액형) in Korean is believed by many to be predictive of a person's personality, temperament, and compatibility with others. This is similar to how astrological signs are perceived as influencing factors in a person's life in other countries.
One of the reasons Japan developed the blood type personality indicator theory was in reaction against ethnic stereotypes coming from Europe. The popular belief originates with publications by Masahiko Nomi in the 1970s.
The scientific community generally dismisses blood type personality theories as a superstition or pseudoscience because of lack of evidence or testable criteria. Although research into the causal link between blood type and personality is limited, research does not demonstrate any statistically significant association between the two. Some studies suggest that there is a statistically significant relationship between blood type and personality, although it is unclear if this is simply due to a self-fulfilling prophecy. Recently, some medical hypotheses have been proposed in support of blood type personality theory.
The idea that personality traits were inherited through blood types date as far back as Aristotle. Hippocrates also sought to link personality biologically, linking traits with the four bodily humors—sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric and melancholic.
In 1926, Rin Hirano and Tomita Yashima published the article "Blood Type Biological Related" in the Army Medical Journal. It was seen to be 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 Furukawa's lack of credentials, and the militarist government of the time commissioned a study aimed at breeding ideal soldiers. The study used ten to twenty people for the investigation, thereby failing to meet the statistical requirements for generalizing the results to the wider population.
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