Blood type is a kind of granfaloon for Japanese. It is often used as a start of conversation when they are not so familiar with each other. It may be used as follows.

“My God,” she said, “are you blood type B?”
I admitted I was.
“I’m blood type B, too,” she crowed. “Nobody has to be ashamed of being blood type B.”
“I’m not,” I said. “I never knew anybody who was.”

Widespread Japanese belief in blood type pseudoscience certainly pisses me off. A lot of people here believe it ( http://whatjapanthinks.com/2008/06/07/pseudo-science-and-superstition-believed-by-far-too-many-japanese/), and it’s ridiculous, but it’s hardly something you can cite as a sign that Japanese medical technology lags behind the West.

A couple other links about dumb beliefs (not to pick on America – it’s just what came up on google searches first)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,99945,00.html
http://www.livescience.com/health/060810_evo_rank.html

I find it very surprising the U.S being among most advance nation, many Americans still believe in creationism and for that matter, somehow believe in God. I don’t know about the fan death, is it like a superstition in U.S. that if all of the candles on a birthday cake are blown out with one breath, while making a silent wish, the wish will come true, or the United States two-dollar bill brings bad luck?
I don’t call the cause of the Korean beef issue pseudo-science, it is the distortion of scientific data fueled by the media and the Anti-US Ideologue.

It’s not really a big problem though, just very surprising that Japan being among the most advanced nation in the world still is ignorant about a lot of things. I don’t mean to single them out either, most East Asians seem to share these crack pot ideas; blood type is somewhat common in Taiwan and fan death is believed in Korea, then there’s the whole pseudoscience with the recent beef issues which Obama pointed out the other day.

I would have deleted more stupid/off-topic comments on this post earlier had I been able to check them at the time. I’ve just cleaned up some of the threads, but I don’t want previous comments from users like Ponta to go to waste.

I take it from your comments that you are among those who hate Mainichi’s WaiWai column because it makes the world think Japan is a wacky crazy place. It’s annoying that Mainichi’s English edition doesn’t have a clear disclaimer about how the news being reported in WaiWai columns is from tabloid magazines, and that probably confuses international readers who think the articles are true because they are on the website of a mainstream Japanese newspaper.

Japan Probe is not a mainstream newspaper, and I don’t think there’s any chance that people will come here and mistake this post, which repeatedly states that its content comes from an article in a Men’s magazine, to be representative of the general scientific and medical progress in Japan.

But it is accurate, I think, to claim that a large number of people in this country hold stupid beliefs about Blood Type, just as one could say that a large percentage of people in other countries hold stupid beliefs about astrology, UFO’s, ghosts, divining rods, etc.

I just googled, Here is a similar topics.
” Astrology of Sex”
http://www.cafeastrology.com/articles/sexualastrology_page2.html

I guess some western people enjoy this kind of things. There is no problem with that.

And suppose the comments such as

“American women believe everything they read on the Internet.”
“The U.S is in the stone age when it comes to knowledge of physics. ”
“Japanese science has proved that there is no connection between the sexual pleasure and horoscope.”
“Japanese education give a shit about creationism”

follows,

do they not based on heavy prejudice ?

What you need to establish is how Japan’s medical knowledge is related to this urban legend.
Does the existence of astrology in the U.S prove the U.S. is in the stone age when it comes to physics?

It is needless to say blood type character telling is just as pseudoscience as a fortune-telling and astrology. Some people enjoy it for fun, some people take it seriously. It matters little for most of the people. That’s all.

You know, it is just things that gets a coversation alive.
………
“What is his blood type?
“Type B”
1)”That is why”
2)”Hmmm, he does not act like a blood type B guy.”

More like an urban legend.

The only social phenomena here is an unprecedented number of unmarried japanese women between the ages of 30 and 35 who are looking for some kind of explanation to why their situation is different than their mothers’. Most women here want to be housewives, not working moms. This is just not possible these days, the average young salary man does not make enough to support an entire family. The women know this so they seek men who make more than average. Not the easiest way to find a mate especially when may other women are trying to do the same thing.

Or the old salary man readers of that post are looking for easier ways to get young women into love hotels.

thanks dr. jamais jamais for making things clear.

Interestingly enough, Blood Type A women have been described closely to what a tsundere character in anime is like
(Kagami from Lucky Star, Tohsaka Rin from F/SN anyone? XD)

Wifey herself used to be in showbiz, but it wasn’t until three years ago she discovered she wasn’t actually the typical A she thought she was!