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In Japan, blood defines personality
A link found betwen human blood and personality, is becoming a new draw in Japan, to judge people at the workplace.
When the atmosphere loosened up at her office, Japanese hospital clerk Makiko Ishikawa knew it was because there was new blood around -- literally.
Fellow workers with Type-O blood had joined the team, she explained, replacing the Type-A types who strictly follow the rules.
"When I meet someone for the first time, like newcomers at work, I usually ask them their blood types. It tells me something about their personality," said 30-year-old Ishikawa.
"You would be amazed to find out how much you can tell about a person by knowing her or his blood type," she said.
Such belief in a link between blood types and human personalities is common currency in Japan and South Korea.
Television networks and magazines are rife with programmes on the supposed connection, and many Japanese and Koreans casually ask others about their blood types to predict their inclinations.
While in Western countries many people are completely unaware of their blood types unless they need to provide it to health workers for medical reasons, Japanese are acutely aware what type they are.
But the practice also has a dark side - discrimination against people, particularly children, based purely on their blood.
The issue has become such a cause of concern that a Japanese industry group has asked major broadcasters to stop presenting blood type shows as science.
To Toshitaka Nomi, a leading researcher of blood-type characterisation who has studied the link for three decades, people are undeniably predisposed to certain characteristics due to their blood.
He believes Japan should recognise the fact and make use of it.
"If studies in this area become more advanced, we can apply this to improve product marketing, human resource management, education," said Nomi, a former journalist who heads the non-profit Human Science ABO Centre in Tokyo.
In Japan, the four blood types are more evenly distributed than in many countries, although Type-A and Type-O still account for nearly 70 percent of the population.
According to popular belief, Type-A people are organised perfectionists, while Type-Os are strong leaders.
The more rare Type-AB indicates a person is rational and standoffish in public, but in private is creative and full of emotion, typically becoming decorators or gourmands.
Type-B means a person puts personal freedom above community order, a taboo in East Asian culture, leading to the bullying of Type-B children at school.
Only 20 percent of people in highly organised Japan are Type-B, compared with about 40 percent in India, Nomi said.
According to Nomi's research, during the era of Japan's rapid economic growth after World War II, 36 percent of publicly traded firms had Type-O, or strong leaders, presidents, more than the 31 per cent of the general population.
After the 1970s, the percentage of Type-O presidents fell to 29 percent. They were replaced by Type-As, the organised ones whose management skills kept up Japan's stable growth, Nomi said.
US president Ronald Reagan was Type O, while the slain John F. Kennedy was AB, said Nomi, who has published some 100 books in Japan, some of which have been translated into Chinese, English, Indonesian, Korean and Thai.
"These findings are all statistically significant, not a result of a one-off survey," said Nomi, himself a Type-A.
But Daisuke Nakanishi, a social psychologist at Hiroshima Shudo University, warned of danger if people believed such ideas were science rather than just entertainment.
"It is an immensely interesting field of study for us scholars, that many people actually believe in blood type characterization even after many scientists have dismissed it," he said.
Human genes have been linked with human characters, but it is too "radical" to say blood types affect character, said Nakanishi, who is among many scholars who keep Internet sites against the concept.
"Those who believe in blood type characterisation think they know about people just by learning their blood types. It is dangerous to casually believe that," he said.
Blood type characterization has a mixed historical legacy in Japan, where psychologist Takeji Furukawa pioneered the field in the 1920s.
During World War II, the Japanese military used the notion to assign soldiers to tasks most appropriate to their personalities.
The notion was once dismissed as pseudo science, but it regained popularity after Nomi's father Masahiko, an author, began writing about it, largely by analyzing famous people and their blood types.
Many people now look at blood types to analyse compatibility with potential romantic partners.
The concept is so popular it was turned into a hit romantic comedy film last year in South Korea, "My Boyfriend is Type-B," about the turbulent times between a Type-A university student and her moody and destructive Type-B partner.
But a backlash has grown against blood-type characterisation after reports of Type-B children bullied at school.
The Broadcasting Ethics and Program Improvement Organisation, an industry group, called on broadcasters to tone down their programming after complaints by parents and teachers.
"Categorising people by their blood types -- about which individuals cannot do anything -- can lead to discrimination. Adults may laugh it off as entertainment. But it is not necessarily so among children," it said in a request to member broadcasters.
Many Japanese understand the concept, much as they would astrology, but take it with a grain of salt.
"I think there is truth to it, though it may not be entirely true," said Hidefumi Akashio, 32, a businessman. "I am Type-A and am supposed to be meticulous and organized. But I'm not."
Nomi admitted there blood types could not explain everything, as environment and parental guidance also played key roles in shaping a personality.
"It is like beef and cooks. If a blood type were a piece of meat, the environment is a chef. Various chefs can create various dishes using the same beef. Beef is a key ingredient, but results differ significantly," he said.
