Blood Types in Japan
"In Japan, using blood type to predict a person’s character is as common as going to McDonald’s and ordering a teriyaki burger. The association is akin to the equally unscientific use of astrological signs by Americans to predict behavior, only more popular. It is widely believed that more than 90 percent of Japanese know their blood type." (Source)
Blood types are popular in Japan, and I think some of the popularity might be spilling over into other Asian nations. I will check this out and blog later, but I am pretty sure this has it's basis in Nazi science. It was originally an attempt to show that the Aryan race was superior to all others. More later.
The article also quotes Theodore Bestor as saying: "Japanese tend to have a fairly strong kind of inherent belief that genetics and biology really matter in terms of people’s behavior. So I think Japanese might be much more predisposed to thinking about a kind of genetic basis for personality than most Americans would." This statement borders on Nihonjinron. There are 120 million people in Japan. How would anyone know this about *all* Japanese. Do you think Theodore Bestor did a survey on this. No. He's reporting an impression. And one that examined more carefully would probably be found lacking. Broad generalizations about large classes of human beings of this type are almost bound to be wrong.
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I've been thinking about this
I've been thinking about this more, and I wanted to add something. Consider the following statement:
"The Japanese intellect is strongly analytical and sometimes gives them so great an ability to see both sides of a question that they vacillate and find it hard to make decisions."
I'm sure that many people would read this sentence and find it both plausible and interesting. I think that even people who have lived a long time in Japan might regard this sentence as having *some* truth.
However, note that I have altered the above sentence from it's original source.
The source of the sentence is here:
http://www.astrology-online.com/gemini.htm
It does not really refer to "the Japanese" but to people falling under the astrological sign of Gemini.
Now take a look at Theodore Bestor's statement:
“Japanese tend to have a fairly strong kind of inherent belief that genetics and biology really matter in terms of people’s behavior. So I think Japanese might be much more predisposed to thinking about a kind of genetic basis for personality than most Americans would.”
While supposedly a professor at Harvard, he is making a statement that is on the same level as an astrologist.
Not only this, but ironically, the author of the article, David Picker, states:
"In Japan, using blood type to predict a person’s character is as common as going to McDonald’s and ordering a teriyaki burger. The association is akin to the equally unscientific use of astrological signs by Americans to predict behavior, only more popular."
The entire article is no better than that which it purports to criticize.
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