Blood Type and Personality in Japan 血液型と性格

Japanese follows English. 英語の後に日本語が続きます。

Japanese people often assume the personality of others based on the blood type because in Japan many believe that people with each blood type are said to have the following personality traits:

• A　　Down-to-earth and careful 
• B　　At their own pace, curious  
• O　　Positive and sociable
• AB　  Reasonable and two-faced   

Hearing people talking about the blood type always reminds me of one of the professors of the social psychology department at the university I went to. 

In the fourth year, we started to talk about the subject of theses as we had to write theses and get a certain number of credits to graduate. Some were considering writing about self cognition, discrimination or rumor. I was thinking about buying behavior. And another said he'd decided to focus on the blood type and personality. A few days later, however, he told us that he'd changed the subject because of the professor's strong opposition and why.    

He said that the professor's father was a professor of forensic medicine, specializing in the ABO blood group system, so our professor, i.e., his son, detested someone classifying people based on the blood type because that wasn't scientific and was an insult to his father's achievements. I agree, and think Japan has another way of telling people's personality, i.e., sibling relationship. 

The Japanese language distinguishes elderly brothers from younger brothers and elderly sisters from younger sisters. Also, elderly brothers and sisters can call younger brothers and sisters by their first names but not vice versa. Younger brothers and sisters generally call their big brothers and sisters "oniichan" and "oneechan," meaning "big brother" and "big sister." This should contribute to forming some kind of vertical relationship between brothers and sisters. So, what is used in your country to tell people'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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