According to a recent issue of the Shukan Post weekly magazine, “personality analysis based on blood type” (血液型別性格分析) is the biggest boom ever among 20 and 30 something women, whether they be co-eds, office workers, or young marrieds. When ever these women get together, they tend to say things like, “Well, I’m blood type A so…”, or “How come the boss has to be type B..?” But, the main focus of their interest in blood types is, as you may have guessed: physical compatibility with male partners.

What ignited this whole boom was the best selling book An Instruction Manual for Those with Type B Blood (B型自分の説明書) by unidentified author Jamais Jamais. Its huge success precipitated the publication of a slew of similar books purporting to reveal the relationship between blood type and personality.

The Shukan Post article quotes Ayano Shozeki, a fortune-telling researcher and creator of perennially popular psychology diagnosis tests for women’s magazines, who opines that, “The main reason young women are interested in personality analysis by blood type is not so much that they want to learn about their relationships with the boss or friends–their main interest is finding out what their lover, or the guy they’re interested in, is like on the inside. They are interested in his views on romance and sex.”

The Shukan Post, being a weekly oriented toward male readers, believes that such information can be put to more practical, and lecherous, purposes. The title of their article is, “The Straight Dope on How to Capture a Woman: Blood Type and Sex”.

The article also has an inset introduced thus: “What blood type is that chic? Sexual Tastes of Different Blood Types and Capture Strategy.” It breaks women down by blood group with these four headings for each type: “Basic Character”; “Views on Romance”; “Hints on how to Capture”; and “Representative Celebrities”.

It seems that the type A woman is a methodical, pure, lover of order. Generally speaking: she believes love is an essential ingredient of sex; more than the act itself, she enjoys being held; even if she permits you to kiss her, she won’t easily let you go all the way; she would like to be permitted to take her undergarments off slowly and carefully; she has a weakness for being taken from behind; she is resistant to letting herself be seen scantily clad; if she becomes aroused, she will try to hide the fact because of her excessive shyness; if given specific orders, her service mentality will reveal itself; because doing what she knows she shouldn’t intoxicates her, she can easily fall into an extramarital affair.

A girl with blood type A purportedly has these views on romance: she believes in fateful encounters; she wants romantic love; she gets irritated if the relationship doesn’t seem to move forward; sometimes, if she becomes impatient, she will make the first move herself; she wants the man to take the lead in bed; she likes to be complimented even on trivial things.

These are the Shukan Post’s hints on how to capture her: whatever, it’s important to display honesty and sincerity; she has a weakness for erudition, “teachers” and “instructors”; if you can show her that you especially like her, you’ll be nearer the goal; on dates, she likes to go to the latest hot-spots; extravagant gifts will make her well-disposed toward you; a break from the routine liberates both her mind and body: inviting her to a resort is an effective gambit.

Representative celebrities are: Masami Nagasawa, Seiko Matsuda, and Takako Matsu

The woman with type B blood is a portrait in contrasts with her type A sister. These are her putative basic character traits: she does things at her own pace but has a keen sense of curiosity; she is vivacious and energetic; she dislikes the herd mentality; she is opposed to being the same as everyone else; she is not opposed to sex for its own sake, so there’s a good chance that she will fall into taboo love; there is very little that she is opposed to doing as far as positions or situations go.

Generally speaking, it can be said of the type B woman that: when she wants it, she is more likely to come on to you than wait patiently; she is ready and willing to respond to an urgent booty call; she gets irritated if her partner is clumsy; she finds it tiresome to be the one expected to minister to her partner’s desires; persistent foreplay will end up turning her off; she doesn’t mind showing her wild side; she has little resistance to deviant practices; she likes to wear sexy lingerie; she likes to make love in cars and other tight spaces; she fantasizes about her friends’ boyfriends; she can date a number of guys concurrently; she thinks that losing her figure is a natural consequence of enjoying the spice of life.

The following are her views on romance: if you’re both on the same wavelength, she thinks it’s O.K. to not be sleeping together; she enjoys not knowing whether a come on is serious or just flirtation; she has a number of men around her who are more than friends, but not quite lovers; she is turned off by guys who try to create a romantic ambience; she doesn’t want her love to get stale, she craves variety and variation every time she gets together with her man.

Here are the hints on how to capture a woman with type B blood: she has a weakness for confessions of love such as: “I’ve always fancied you”; being told, “you really are pretty” will cause her resolve to waver; she is also tolerant toward guys who are under the influence of alcohol; if a guy shares her interests, that will be enough to make her more receptive to him; if she knows that he really wants another girl, her competitive instincts will be aroused; rather than going to fancy restaurants, she prefers casual dining.

Representative B type celebrities are: Yuko Ogura, Aya Matsuura, Rie Miyazawa and Ko Shibasaki

This post is already a bit long, so what the predilections of type O and AB girls are, I’ll leave to the reader’s imagination. This is the kind of article that’s so over the top it makes you wonder whether anyone actually takes it seriously. I tend to think not. I think it’s just a bit of harmless, if extremely sexist, entertainment. As the article itself says, it’s mostly young and youngish women who are interested in the whole blood type phenomenon, and the Shukan Post’s readership mainly consists of business men in their 40s or 50s.