Blood Type and Personality in Japan 血液型と性格

英語の後に日本語が続きます。

Japanese people often guess others' personalities based on their blood type. In Japan, many believe that each blood type carries specific traits:

• A: Down-to-earth and careful
• B: Independent and curious
• O: Positive and sociable
• AB: Rational but multifaceted

Hearing people talk about blood types always reminds me of a professor in the social psychology department at my university.

During our fourth year, we started discussing our graduation theses, as writing one was required to earn enough credits to graduate. Some of my classmates were considering topics like self-cognition, discrimination, or rumors. I was thinking about consumer buying behavior. Another classmate said he had decided to focus on the relationship between blood type and personality. A few days later, however, he told us he had changed his subject because his professor strongly opposed it—and he explained why.

He mentioned that the professor's father was a professor of forensic medicine who specialized in the ABO blood group system. Because of this, our professor hated when people classified others by blood type; he felt it was unscientific and insulted his father's life's work. I agree with him, and I think Japan has another common way of judging personality: sibling relationships.

The Japanese language distinguishes older brothers from younger brothers and older sisters from younger sisters. Also, older siblings can call younger siblings by their first names, but not the other way around. Younger siblings generally call their older brothers and sisters 'oniichan' and 'oneechan,' meaning 'big brother' and 'big sister.' This helps create a vertical (hierarchical) relationship between siblings. So, what do people in your country use to gauge a person's personality?

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「A型だから慎重でしょ？」とか「B型だからマイペースでしょ」とか言われたことありませんか。そういう時にいつも思い出すことがあります。

私は大学で社会心理学を専攻していたのですが、卒論のテーマについて話し合っているときのことです。中の一人が「血液型と性格」について書くと言ったんです。その時はみんなふ～んという感じだったのですが、担当教授に話したらものすごく反対されたらしく、テーマを変えました。理由は後になって分かりました。

教授のお父様は法医学、特に血液型に関する権威で、息子の彼は、血液型で性格判断するようなふざけたことを断固として許さないそうなんです。アハハな話ですが、考え方には大賛成。血液型で性格分かったら苦労なんてない！どちらかというと私は兄弟姉妹で性格に相違が出ると思っています。まっ、兄姉だけが弟妹を呼び捨てできる日本だけの話ですけどね（笑）。

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