Japanese Hook Up, Hire by Blood Type

In Japan, belief in blood group personality types colors dating
By Jane Yager,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 28, 2010 9:48 AM CDT
Japanese Hook Up, Hire by Blood Type
Matched by blood type? A couple young snaps a souvenir photo with a mobile phone in front of a tunnel of illumination at an amusement park in Tokyo, Japan, Thursday, Nov. 26, 2009.   (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

If you're looking for a decisive, confident partner, try dating someone with type O blood. Type As are dependable worrywarts, ABs are balanced but high-maintenance, and if you've been burned by a selfish ex, blame their type B blood. That's the conventional wisdom in Japan, where people believe blood group determines personality—a belief that plays out in dating, the workplace and even politics.

Speed dating sessions in Tokyo often pair couples by blood group, and Japanese self-help books and women's magazines recommend it. Job applicants are sometimes asked their blood type in interviews, and there's even a term for harassment on the basis of blood type, burahara. But blood typing only goes so far: Former prime minister Taro Aso broadcast that he was A, a well-regarded blood group, but lost his reelection bid anyway, the BBC reports.
(More blood stories.)

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