Blood type

"What is your blood type?" It is a common question to Japanese people, but I heard a rumor that foreigners just can’t understand why Japanese people want to know their blood type, even though they are not doctors.

●　People who are A-type blood tend to be sensitive, methodical, hard workers, perfectionists and realists.

●　People who are O-type blood tend to be generous, sociable, sloppy and take good care of people around them.

●　People who are B-type blood tend to go their own ways. They also tend to be moody people, selfish, full of curiosity, passionate and are doers.

●　People who are AB-type blood tend to be calm, have dual personalities, odd, rationalists, geniuses, sarcastic.

※　These are general theories about each blood type’s character in Japan.

What do you think about these theories? Do you think they are true?

Many Japanese people believe blood type can help them to understand other people’s personalities. However it seems to be such a mysterious question to foreigners, especially to European and American people.

I think, the characteristics of A-type blood people seem to express the Japanese stereotype, and if I could add “wearing glasses and having cameras” it would be perfect. Unfortunately it is not enough proof that character can be distinguished from someone’s blood type, because there is nothing scientific about a stereotypical image.

The graph above is from a website. It shows each country’s ratio of blood type in 2005. Whether I believe that people’s characters can be determined from their blood type as Japanese theorize, I am interested in the data above. There are different ratios depend on each country; Nicaragua has a noticeably big difference.

If a person’s characteristics were determined by their blood type, each country’s ratio of blood type would express each country’s national characteristic.

One of my friends discovered her true blood type after giving birth to a boy. Until that time, she had believed that she was B-type and spent her life as a B-type for 20 years, even though she was truly AB. She told me as soon as she saw me when I visited her hospital. “Can you believe this? My real blood type is AB. As you know, I had spent my whole life as a B-type until now. It’s too late to know I am AB-type.” To her, her real blood type was bigger news than childbirth. I am sure her character is expressed by B-type’s general theory; she goes her own way and she is moody, a little bit selfish, and passionate. However I am also sure her character is expressed by AB-type’s general theory; she is calm, dual personality, odd and sarcastic.

In my case, people who don’t know me very well guess my blood type, “Your blood type surely is B or O, isn’t it?” People who are getting to know me well ask me, “Is your blood type A?” Actually my blood type is AB, so I answer, “No. I have AB-type blood.” After they know my blood type, they change their guess, “Yes, you are absolutely AB, as I expected! I had thought you were a little bit strange.” or “Oh, really! You seem AB from your character.” What the hell was their guess before they knew the truth? If they believed I was AB, they should have asked me, “Is your blood AB-type?”

In short, we can’t rely on each blood type’s stereotype, it is just preconception.

People look for some expressions and try to fit in their character from some theories; birth place, the sign of zodiac and blood type. If I look at myself; born in Tokyo, AB-type and a Sagittarius, by using those theories, I would be impatient, warm hearted, calm, dual personalities, odd, a genius, loving freedom, very curious and a person of action.

It might be a good topic for discussion and help to make conversation with acquaintances, who likes to judge from birth place, blood type and the signs of the zodiac.

I think some of them might be true, but those are only statistical tendencies.