At the Crossroads of Modernity: Japan, the Blood-Type Fad, and Eugenic Science in the 20th Century

Eugenics #2 of 4. If you are stumbling on this episode because you are someone obsessed with Japanese culture, then you probably already know about the blood-type fad that leaves poor Type-Bs at the bottom of the dating pool. What you may not already know, however, is how Japan developed that particular discrimination premise -- after all, knowledge about "blood types" is not ancient. It's not even particularly old! Indeed, the "science" and superstition that shapes the blood-type fad today is rooted in the crossroads of Japanese "modernity": Western science, Japanese nationalism, and a heaving effort to get people to stop marrying their damn cousins. Get the transcript and full bibliography at digpodcast.org. Key texts for this episode include:

Rachel Nuwer, "You are what you Bleed: In Japan and other east Asian countries some believe blood type dictates personality," Scientific American (11 Feb 2011)

Sumiko Otsubo, “Eugenics in Imperial Japan: Some Ironies of Modernity, 1883-1945,” Dissertation School of the Ohio State University (1998)

Jennifer Robertson, “Blood Talks: Eugenic Modernity and the Creation of New Japanese,” History and Anthropology 13:3 (2002) 191-216

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