Peace Frog

Japanese Minister says it's in his blood.

Matsumoto Ryu (surname first), the former Japan reconstruction minister was forced to quit his post on July 5, 2011 after a week on the job, as some of his comments were deemed too vitriolic towards victims of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disasters.

His defense? His blood type.

Says Matsumoto (translated from Japanese), "My blood type is B, which means I can be irritable and impetuous, and my intentions don't always come across."

In Japan, there is a fairly popular belief that the blood type can tell you what a person's characteristics are like, and are used like the Zodiac to foretell success or failure in love and what types of jobs they should seek.

Matsumoto continues: "My wife called me earlier to point that out. I think I need to reflect about that."

Or maybe he should just learn to focus on his job and keep his stupid mouth shut. How the heck does a guy like this get ever get to be in a position of power in the first place.

Again, I would urge you all to visit my friend Mike's blog HERE to get more information about the whole story.

Back to the lighter side... the guy's wife told him he should blame is stupidity on his blood type? Behind every whipped man there is an even bigger idiot. Dude... shut your mouth.  Apologize for being an insensitive jerk and invite some dead ancestors over for dinner and counsel during Obon next month.

Blood type: who the heck am I to judge, as I  do check my horoscope most days of the week. I also admit knowing that I am a Dragon (born in 1964) and that I am a Scorpio (November 8) - can I get any more dangerous?! Let's see... I am AB negative (I think). 

Blood type, or ketsueki-gata (血液型) is more important to the Japanese than that whole horoscope thing.

Blood Type Personality Chart

 AB
Good traits: cool, controlled, rationale, sociable, adaptable.
Bad traits: critical, indecisive, forgetful, irresponsible, split personality.

O
Good traits: agreeable, sociable, optimistic.
Bad traits: vain, rude, jealous, arrogant.

B
Good traits: wild, active, doer, creative, passionate, strong.
Bad traits: selfish, irresponsible, unforgiving, unpredictable.

A
Good traits: earnest, creative, sensible, reserved, patient, responsible.
Bad traits: fastidious, over-earnest, stubborn, tense.


I'm AB, as mentioned... so let's look at the bad points:

Critical? That's just stupid! I'm not critical! Who made up this chart? Monkeys?

Indecisive? Well, maybe I am critical. I think. I try to be fair. But maybe others think I'm not.

Irresponsible? No I'm not, but if I am, I'm going to have to blame my mom. No, my da. No, my mom. No, both of them! No, I'm blaming it on my dog! 

Split personality? Who said that? I did. No I didn't.

I think there might have been another one... or did I cover it already? (no you didn't!). Didn't I? Whatever.

So... where were we?

In reality, I do see myself as having all of the good AB traits. But if you take a look at all of the blood type traits, I think I am guilty of having all of them (good & bad), to be fair—which is one of the good AB traits. It's not? Well, it should be!

So, what's up Japan? There are only four types of people in the country? I mean, I know you guys had a closed door policy until the 1860's, but I did live in Ohtawara-shi, Tochigi-ken for three years... surely I brought some diversity with me?

At least with the horoscope, you can add in an additional 12 types of personality or personality disorder. Add in the 12 animal years (times 5 for the different types of each animal).

This blood typing became a popular fad back in the 1970s, but historically, 40 years earlier, there were some tests done by the Japanese that pinpointed blood type to personality. As an aside... for any test one does, you can always get any result you want if you conduct and analyze the test yourself.

Furkawa Takeji (surname first) of the Tokyo Women's Teaching School - sometime after 1931 - compared blood types between the Formosands of Taiwan and the Ainu people of northern Japan (the actual Japanese indigenous people). Why? After Japan had occupied Taiwan after a victory over China back in 1895, the Taiwanese locales eventually had some bloody uprisings back in 1930 and 1931, leading to the deaths of hundreds of Japanese settlers.

Despite it being some 35 years after initially being over run by the Japanese, Furukawa believed the Taiwanese to be blood thirsty, as as such wanted to see if this could be tracked by blood type.

The study, which showed that 41.2 per cent of the Taiwanese sampled had the blood type O. As such, Furukawa assumed that the Taiwanese aggression was genetically based and had nothing to do with invaders squatting in their country. I can see that. (No you don't).

The facts were supported by only 23.8 per cent of the Ainu having blood type O, as the Ainu were considered pretty much submissive.

The study concluded that in order to maintain better control of Taiwan, the Japanese should intermarry with the Taiwanese to reduce Taiwanese aggression.

I think back in the old days, you only needed to have a yardstick and a mortar hat to become a professor - oh, and you had to be a man.

By the way... Furukawa had previously published a paper in the scholarly Psychological Research  journal—"The Study Of Temperament Through Blood Type"—that was well-received by Japan's then militarist government as they then commissioned a study to breed the perfect soldier. Like Captain America. Or like genetic purification per Hitler and those goofy Nazi's (whose swastika is the symbol for a Japanese temple).

By the way... the study that laid the basis for his article in the journal—under 20 people were sampled. Hell.... even on that inane television game show The Family Feud, they survey 100 people.

I'm just saying—and this is my opinion—don't put to much stock into the blood types. Maybe there is something to it, but you are still master of your domain. Just shut your mouth and know your role!

Somewhere (no you're not),
Andrew Joseph
PS: Need a rock and roll song for this blog? Try Peace Frog and listen to all the references to BLOOD