The Japanese also have an inexplicable prejudice against the colorblind for a similarly bullshit reason.

Thanks for posting that. I had read passing references to Furuhata's "work" but never a quote from his actual papers. I can't tell you how much I loathe the blood type personality bullshit and all the other annoying superstitious nonsense in Japan.

(I am type B of course)

J. Wikipedia:

"欧米では色覚異常により差別される事はほとんどない。東アジアでは、現在も厳しい差別がある。"

"In Europe and the Americas, there is little discrimination against color blindness. In East Asia, even now severe discrimination exists."

"一部の色が区別しづらいだけで日常生活にはほとんど影響ないが、「色盲」「異常」などの言葉の語感故、過去から誤解・理解不足による偏見を招き、かつては社会生活に多くの面で不当な差別の対象となった。"

"Though being unable to distinguish certain colors has little impact on life style, such words as 'color blind' and 'abnormal' have up to the present invited prejudices due to misunderstandings and insufficient understanding. As a result, in numerous situations, the color blind have become the object of unreasonable discrimination by society."

a friend of mine (not japanese) has, i'm not sure to what extent, looked into the blood type thing from a purely medical/biological angle and supposedly there are noticable differences according to blood type as far as metabolism and stuff goes. if that was actually the case it wouldn't be too far stretched to assume that those differences might affect character as well.

Japanese racism is fuckin' hilarious when it's not directed at me.

Oh come ON, Alin! That is *quite* a stretch indeed. Are you a Deleuzean or a reductionist sociobiologist?

My mom is AB+ and my dad is O-, so my immediate family has the whole range of types and our personalities are *nothing* like our blood types. They are ridiculously different. I don't believe in astrology, but for what it's worth, my sign under either zodiac is accurate enough that I can tell people my sign without worry that they will get the wrong idea about me, were they into that sort of thing. It's hardly a big deal, but since you brought it up, you know.

Brown, we all know that constipated people are often quite grumpy. i really don't know enough about it to say anything. there is a certain dimension to Deleuze though that makes me think of nothing less than gurdjieff and the like -both in the writing itself and in the way it's being taken- so here we go.

anyone heard the theory that the reason many japanese people have an extremely low alcohol tolerance, is due to some (wrong?) mix between the jomon genes and something else - i can't remember the details but it's supposed to be a theory. a waseda guy told it to me long ago.

Alin, I can totally accept a biopsychosocial or process-oriented theory of medicine, but actually I think you were being really crudely linear. Bodies are *highly* complex systems, so it seems pretty outrageous to entertain that kind of speculation. And man, you totally lost me with Gurdjieff. Does his sacred dancing cure constipation? Let's just say you won't be operating on ME anytime soon, doc!

i was basically being silly yet i do have a minor point about deleuze and gurdjieff. (you could probably put nietzsche and hp blavatski in there too - again one legal one not).
Strike me dead but as a book i do think Mille Plateaux resembles The Secret Doctrine or Beelzebub's tales in the way that within a seemingly convoluted structure it hyperbolically rails against just about everything considered common wisdom at the time. The way they're all so appropriable by and inspiring to fascists and artists. (you know about the israeli army using deleuzian lingo to map palestinian territory etc,) i was in a bookshop the other day and picked up some new book on deleuze and i swear the spiel on the back cover would have fitted perfectly on a book on gurdjieff n0 years ago - didn't record exactly what it said nor the name of the book because it was all a bit too much. the similarities would probably have to end here.

sorry marxy

"I can't tell you how much I loathe the blood type personality bullshit and all the other annoying superstitious nonsense in Japan."

All Japanese people I have known have been very interested in blood type. All Japanese people I have known have believed in ghosts. Hisae tells me that speaking to rice kindly will make it resist decay longer. I accept these things -- not as dogma I must believe myself, but as part of the make-up of the average Japanese person.

What you have to understand is that the vices and virtues of a people are intimately tied up with each other, just as they are in an individual. Remove, for instance, Japanese belief in ghosts and you lose "Kwaidan" and "Ringu" and other great cultural exports. There seems to be a fundamental misconception in this blog that someone -- a foreigner, no less -- could lean into Japan like a surgeon and remove, say, the Lolita Complex as one takes out a malfunctioning appendix. Then Japan would rise up from the table, thank the surgeon, and be "a healthily-functioning world citizen", exactly the same, but with the bad bits taken out. It just doesn't work that way. You cannot tinker with someone else's soul according to your own philosophy, Dr Frankenstein.

In other words, it's bullshit to say "I do not loathe Japan, I just loathe [goes on to list every single attribute of every single Japanese person]..."

I think this (as well as the notion that one could "cauterize" the "bad bits" of someone else's nation -- and excuse my sensitivity, but I've just listened to a Tony Blair interview in which he attempted to justify the Iraq invasion as an extension of his belief that, in the age of globalization, we're all interdependent, and therefore we must intervene to "correct" things wherever they may annoy or alarm us) is particularly alarming when it comes in episodic form. For instance, in the form of a blog which gives us, day in and day out, recognizable and partly factually-based portraits of parts of Japanese life. Because the "but" (I loathe this about Japan, but of course I'm not anti-Japanese) just dwindles away with each post.

So I would like to challenge Marxy to a non-sarcastic "Great Things About Japan Week" in which he blogs at least 5 major things he finds great about his adopted (and married-into) nation. And, to be particularly challenging, I would like him to find ways in which these great things could not exist without the existence of some of the very things he deplores about Japan.

"Remove, for instance, Japanese belief in ghosts and you lose "Kwaidan" and "Ringu" and other great cultural exports."

Because fiction writers always believe that their stories are real.

"I think this (as well as the notion that one could "cauterize" the "bad bits" of someone else's nation -- and excuse my sensitivity, but I've just listened to a Tony Blair interview in which he attempted to justify the Iraq invasion as an extension of his belief that, in the age of globalization, we're all interdependent, and therefore we must intervene to "correct" things wherever they may annoy or alarm us) is particularly alarming when it comes in episodic form."

I'm a huge fan of the Iraq war and Americans abusing prisoners, because it made for a great storyline in Battlestar Galactica. I'm pretty sure Ron Moore wouldn't have thought up anything good if not for that.

Likewise, all those anime with school girls running around shooting everybody are clearly based on the prevalent gun violence in Japanese society.

>Marxy to a non-sarcastic "Great Things About Japan Week" in which he blogs at least 5

this is really really horrible and disgusting what i'm doing but i'm afraid he won't take the challenge. "the feel of tatami at 4 AM", he told me once, would be one.

That's interesting, but I think I had more in mind "traits of the Japanese people". Of course, somebody had to MAKE that tatami, so it's a sort of indirect compliment to the culture. And, to fulfill the last part of my challenge, he'd have to add "And without tatemae, no tatami!"

It broke Momus' heart when the Japanese nation got improved sewage systems in the 1960s. The smell was an integral part of their being!

Momus, you win the prize for presenting the most essentialized vision of the Japanese as a homogeneous mass:

"All Japanese people I have known have been very interested in blood type. All Japanese people I have known have believed in ghosts."

I'm not doubting your experience, and in fact, maybe this explains a lot about your view of Japan, but you simply cannot attribute these beliefs to every single Japanese person. That's positively laughable. I happen to know at least a half-dozen real, living breathing Japanese people (and not returnees or expats, either) of various ages and classes who roll their eyes at the first mention of this kind of stuff. I understand your conservative (defining conservatism as support for the status quo) perspective about and appreciate it. But do you also disapprove of such social tinkering as say, various civil rights movements, or increased political intervention in the economy? Pretty strange version of Leftism you're working with there...

"So I would like to challenge Marxy to a non-sarcastic "Great Things About Japan/Traits of the Japanese Week"

Sure, I'd be in favor of that. But I think your essentailized view of the Japanese prevents you from seeing compliments when Marxy makes them, which is all the time: praising the Japanese people interested in fighting the same systems he decries. For example, note that this post started because Marxy is reading, and no doubt appreciating, Eiji Oguma's excellent work- until we all derailed a fascinating discussion of the historical origins of a contemporary cultural trait into generalizations. Do you think Marxy is "with" the Japanese or "against them?" Hint: That's a trick question.

I think ghosts and blood type are different. There may be some overlap, but one is a spiritual belief/superstition and one is pseudoscience. If the blood type thing has moved over to superstition now (like the zodiac) that's one thing, but we need to realize that it started as an honest, but flawed pursuit of science. And eugenic science at that!

"I can't tell you how much I loathe the blood type personality bullshit and all the other annoying superstitious nonsense in Japan."

Why only Japan? I loathe this stuff everywhere. Especially in Kansas where they try to edit the science out of textbooks. Momus, you're a big supporter of the cultural rights of fundamentalist Christians in the American homeland, right? If you let them believe in evolution, what would happen to the corn crop???

what brown said. (and sorry, i am most likely furthering the derailment here...)

i'm also dismayed by the rush to indictment when someone points out an aspect of a country or culture. (in this case commenting on what seems to be another case of Showa Era nationalism being propped up by what many believe amounts to pseudoscience somehow makes you "anti-japanese"--or inversely, seeming to dismiss said practices makes you a die-hard japan apologist with framed pictures of tojo hideki in you genkan ). it's laughable. it also seems to be pandemic: if you criticize the war (in the U.S.) you're "anti-american,"(or worse, "you want the terrorists to win"), if you criticize israeli gov't tactics you're "anti-semitic," if you criticize strands of misogyny in more fundamentalist islamic cultures you're "anti-muslim" etc. it's thick-headed, really.

i understand people are speaking to marxy directly and to what they perceive is his own (biased?) view of japan. (personally, i don't get that sense from him, granted i haven't been reading the blog as long as others around here have).

alas, there will be those who champion the "uniqueness" discourse regarding japan and those whose work strives to defy it--my position on the matter is: i see japan as being neither more nor less unique than any other country (granted i too have "married into" the culture and endlessly enjoy the place). hey let's all post our own 5 favorite things about Japan! (only 5?).

(sorry for the most parenthetical post ever).

michael

I have every confidence that Marxy could put out 5 consecutive genuine posts about positive aspects of Japanese culture. After all, he has chosen to live here.
On the other hand, I have little confidence that Momus could do the reverse – 5 consecutive posts with genuine criticisms of Japanese culture, without resorting to a backhanded compliment such as bemoaning the way some Japanese have adopted western eating habits.

N.B. I enjoy reading both M & M’s blogs immensely.

Old Mainichi article:

"...The discovery of blood types in 1901 was one of the greatest advances in medical history, but the breakthrough was then perverted by the Nazis to claim the superiority of Germans -- mostly types A and O -- over Jews, Asians and others with a larger proportion of type B blood. The theory reached Japan in a 1927 psychologist's report, and the militarist government of the time commissioned a study aimed at breeding better soldiers. The craze faded in the 1930s as its unscientific basis became evident. But it was revived in the 1970s with a book by Masahiko Nomi, an advocate and broadcaster with no medical background..."

http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/features/archive/news/2005/06/20050629p2g00m0fe081000c.html

boy, and you're talking about not baiting momus.

what happened 80 years ago is one thing, popular as bloodtypeology may be in contemporary japan the closest thing you might hear nowadays that might have to do with discrimination is that in japan there's a preponderance of A types while America has many 0 types - though i havn't checked it myself but i'd say the data is verifiable and there are no value discriminatory value judgements as such.

now you people here hysterically drawing links to nazis and nankin massacres are showing serious signs of fascist behaviour. marxy reciting the litany, singing the refrain and the masses filling the gaps.

needless to say a lot of things had their origin in pseudo-science

"hough i havn't checked it myself but i'd say the data is verifiable and there are no value discriminatory value judgements as such."

No, he's right: we can vouch the inferiority and superiority of nation/races by their distribution of blood types.

I guess I'm especially sensitive to the blood type thing because people seem to only think it matters when it's type B. Yes, anti-evolution pseudoscience in America is infuriating (as are the occasional articles in Sankei that are sympathetic to creationism), but it hasn't really affected me personally. Every society needs its myths, but it seems a little unfair that there's a superstition (even if it's sort of based on science) that clearly short-changes one group of people.

> we can vouch the inferiority and superiority of nation/races by their distribution of blood types.

you missed my point if you say that.

i guess what i'm lammenting - and i'd say momus and a few others too - might also be a matter of style.

the content of the discussions often turns out immensely interesting but boy it'd be nice to come here sometime and see different approaches, different intros rather then the same 'hey, ho, let's go'

Alin, this reads just like those odd filter-evading random-word spam emails that seem so common these days:

"i was basically being silly yet i do have a minor point about deleuze and gurdjieff. (you could probably put nietzsche and hp blavatski in there too - again one legal one not).
Strike me dead but as a book i do think Mille Plateaux resembles The Secret Doctrine or Beelzebub's tales in the way that within a seemingly convoluted structure it hyperbolically rails against just about everything considered common wisdom at the time. The way they're all so appropriable by and inspiring to fascists and artists. (you know about the israeli army using deleuzian lingo to map palestinian territory etc,) i was in a bookshop the other day and picked up some new book on deleuze and i swear the spiel on the back cover would have fitted perfectly on a book on gurdjieff n0 years ago - didn't record exactly what it said nor the name of the book because it was all a bit too much. the similarities would probably have to end here."

I'm still intrigued by your ideas, though, and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

And you know what else (to Brown), i kind of believe this might actually be a 'proper dialectical move' considering those people in their respective milleaus. Recall the early theosophists' socialist thought and activism.

lacadutadegiganti, your signature/name actually fits my spam-like writing rather nice.

"it'd be nice to come here sometime and see different approaches, different intros rather then the same 'hey, ho, let's go'"

This is a bit unfair, seeing that my blog is MY blog and not a news magazine or something. I don't write comments on the Alin Livejournal page asking you to start looking at the market structure of camera manufacturers before you shoot pictures. We all do specific things, and I have a very specific voice. So does Momus. And I am pretty sure that most of us read a variety of sources. Isn't diversity of single units rather than diversity IN single units the whole reason for "leaving Japan alone"?

That being said... the new boat will include multiple skippers.

yes it is a bit unfair. :-)

Skipper Marxy: "It broke Momus' heart when the Japanese nation got improved sewage systems in the 1960s. The smell was an integral part of their being!"

This goes back to my surgeon fixing a broken appendix metaphor upthread. You cannot say people's beliefs are "broken" and simply need to be fixed by some kind of ideological surgeon, especially not a foreigner with his own set of beliefs. Don't you see that by making this metaphor about sewers, you are basically saying that Japanese beliefs are "shit"? And that that's deeply reactionary and racist?

Brown: "you simply cannot attribute these beliefs to every single Japanese person."

I may be overly cultural-determinist, but I think being Japanese or British does determine a huge amount. It's a necessary structuration of beliefs and attitudes, one it takes a conscious effort to transcend. A computer won't run without an operating system, and a human won't run without a group habitus. I repeat, ghosts and blood types have interested all Japanese I've known. They are in the Japanese operting system at this point. Perhaps these things will be changed by some political process. That's fine. What's not fine is that this political process should consist of Western people telling Japanese people their various beliefs and practises (one after the other) are mistaken. Don't you see how alarming and reactionary this is, in a world where Blair uses "liberalism" to justify self-interested interventions which kill hundreds of thousands of people?

"But do you also disapprove of such social tinkering as say, various civil rights movements, or increased political intervention in the economy?"

Certainly not, as long as they come from a people determining itself. What would the American revolution of 1776 have meant if it had been suggested and encouraged by the British and consisted in the Americans becoming MORE rather than LESS British in their government, beliefs, customs and practises?

Marxy hints upthread that he will soon get a "co-pilot", which, we can assume, will be a Japanese co-editor as disaffected with the Japanese way of life as he is himself. While this will certainly be a good alibi against the charges of ethnocentricity I've consistently made, I don't think that one dissident will defuse all criticism. Remember how Pim Fortuyn, the assassinated anti-immigration Dutch politician, had a black lieutenant? Remember how Margaret Thatcher was (allegedly) a woman?

(I'm still trying to decide which is more reductive, insulting and inflammatory -- saying that an interest in blood type makes Japanese people, effectively, Nazis or comparing attacks on attitudes to fixing stinky sewers. In children's arguments the worst thing you can do is compare somebody to poo. In adult arguments, the equivalent is comparing them to a Nazi.)

I should add that the reason I get so annoyed by the use of "universal liberal" arguments here to justify attacks on the Other is that we see so much of it here in Europe. Not just Blair attacking various oil-rich nations in the Middle East to "bring democracy", but Pim Fortuyn attacking Muslim immigrants in Holland by accusing them of illiberalism. The idea that there are objective global liberal standards (including "human rights") is inherently dodgy, but all the more dubious when it's so clearly used as a figleaf for persecution, intolerance and attack.

"Marxy hints upthread that he will soon get a "co-pilot", which, we can assume, will be a Japanese co-editor as disaffected with the Japanese way of life as he is himself."

Stop assuming! You will know in due time!

"(Everything else Momus said.)"

Momus, ladies and gentlemen.

Here is a totally unrelated Momus essay on why American beliefs on evolution are "dangerous."

http://imomus.livejournal.com/218482.html

Here is Momus earlier:

"You cannot say people's beliefs are "broken" and simply need to be fixed by some kind of ideological surgeon."

"some kind of ideological surgeon from another culture".

I don't remember you being born in Tennessee.

Certainly one way to get beyond the "global liberal standards" Momusu laments is acquiring the language of the locals. Do you speak Japanese, Momusu?

PS: Theo Van Gogh was apparently murdered for "blasphemy" of mohammadism. That okay with you? How about murder for apostates from mohammadism? The prophet commands it, does he not? How about female genital mutilation? Is that not a cultural tradition in many African and Middle Eastern countries? How about honor killings? Okay with you? Culturally imperialistic to criticise it?

Go play on your own obscure little blog, self-aggrandizing twit.

alin wrote:

lacadutadegiganti, your signature/name actually fits my spam-like writing rather nice.

-----
You've got a good sense of humor, alin. My nom de guerre is that of an Italian pasticcio-opera presented by Gluck in London in 1746 - "The Fall of the Giants." Seems well-suited to marxy's blog, since he's trying to take the piss out of some of Japan's corporate giants - will Momusu is endeavouring ever-so-hard to put the piss back in.

To dinner and beyond!

Mi scusi. Should be:

...whilst Momusu is endeavouring ever-so-hard to put the piss back in.

To dinner and beyond!

I notice that everybody is quick to take me to task for "essentialism" -- despite the fact that when I'm accused of arguing that there's a timeless Japanese national character, I point out that I'm delighted for the Japanese character to be changing, as long as it's Japanese themselves who are changing it -- and yet no-one points out that the argument in Oguma's book also depends on essentialism. In the passage quoted, he's very keen to make a link between today's widespread interest in blood types and fascist-period eugenics ideology. But isn't it essentialism to say that the meaning of blood type hasn't changed utterly (like almost everything else in Japanese society) between the early 1930s and the 2000s? Are today's schoolgirls really Nazis because they want to find out whether they're compatible with potential boyfriends? Can't we find more contemporary forms of evil, or just abandon guilt-by-association all together, especially when it means one race projecting guilt onto another, or reviving a dead historical period?

"I understand your conservative (defining conservatism as support for the status quo) perspective"

I really, really have to object to this sophism! Does conservatism really now mean "support for someone else's status quo"? And is liberalism really "not accepting someone else's status quo"? For instance, being prepared to pre-empt, or intervene, or invade "on humanitarian grounds"? I think you'll find that this noble non-acceptance of other people's cultures is called "neo-liberal neo-conservatism".

I am not sure that it is responsible to look at historical as unconnected chunks. Abe is not Kishi, but Abe would not be Abe if it weren't for Kishi being Kishi.

(We had this discussion at least 15 times. Momus' position is un-impeachable, it's out of the reach of arguments. Quod licet Momus non licet bovi, it's as simple as that.)

Are today's schoolgirls really Nazis because they want to find out whether they're compatible with potential boyfriends?

No, but they are stupid if what they're using to determine their compatibility is blood type. We all know that phrenology has much better answers. So, go, today's schoolgirls, stroke your potential boyfriend's heads!

"I think ghosts and blood type are different. There may be some overlap, but one is a spiritual belief/superstition and one is pseudoscience. If the blood type thing has moved over to superstition now (like the zodiac) that's one thing, but we need to realize that it started as an honest, but flawed pursuit of science."

Marxy hit the nail on the head here. And blood type is given validity because you find out your type from a doctor, an educated person of respect and science.

I have an American friend I work with here in Tokyo who totally "believes" the blood type thing. We got in an argument over it the other day and she finally asked me why it bothered me so much. Here is my take on it.

The idea of "blood" is way too wrapped in Japanese social and political life for the blood type thing to be taken lightly.

1. Being "Japanese" is based on blood. Born in the U.S.? You're American. Born in Japan? You're not Japanese. You are only Japanese if your parents are. Sure there are foreign people that have become Japanese nationals, but it is a long, hard and unpredictable process. And even then, there are those that still would not accept them as "Japanese."

2. Koseki. This is the big one. Look at they way adopted children or children of divorce are noted on their Koseki and how that can affect their future in terms of getting a job, marriage, etc. Maybe this can also partially account for the low adoption rate?

It goes the other direction as well. I have a friend who is Western and his wife is Japanese, but they were not allowed to adopt a Japanese child because the head of the adoption agency didn't think it would be good for the child to not have Japanese parents.

What's the big deal? What does this all have to do with the blood type thing? It reenforces the underlying belief that who you are (in this case, your personality) is determined by your blood. It is this belief that allows and encourages the above two points and, this may be a leap, but it may even encourage the idea of "the Other" within the context of Japanese society. I can live here for the rest of my life, but I'll never be "Japanese" at least not in many people's eyes. My wife, who's Japanese, and I may have children in the future. Will they be Japanese? Yes. However, there are those that would say they aren't and treat them as if they weren't. A friend of mine's little brother who is half American was being made fun of when he was at elementary school here in Japan. The other students were calling him 外人 "foreigner," and when his mom went to his homeroom teacher to talk about it, the homeroom teacher replied something to the effect of: しょうがない、彼は外人だよ。 "It can't be helped, he's a foreigner."

Perhaps that is something that Japanese people need to figure out on their own. However, I am an active member of Japanese society, so why can't I have an opinion and work on issues that affect me and my future children?

Case in point, I used to live in a prefecture that was a little more rural than Tokyo. It came to my wife and my attention that 3 non-Japanese students were not going to be allowed to go to High School. They were fluent in Japanese, I believe one of them was even born here, but they were being kept out because they weren't Japanese. All the details would take too long to write, but needless to say my wife and I had to fight long and hard to get the prefecture to allow these students an education. Should I have stayed out of it because I'm not Japanese?

So I don't think the blood type thing is "evil," but I do think that unlike belief in ghosts, belief in the blood type thing has the potential to reenforce racial and ethnic stereotypes.

One final note, my Japanese wife who was born and raised 100% in Japan does not believe in ghosts or the blood type thing.

I think you have to accept that while the definition of an American does not depend on blood type, the definition of a Japanese does. This is a difference that you have to negotiate in your (and your family's) daily life. However, one of these positions is not "wrong".

But Momus, would you agree that the claim that personality traits are predicted by blood type is testable or not?

(Hint: if you say "no", then you are barred from ever mentioning your favourite Stanford-based psychologist ever again.)

"I think you have to accept that while the definition of an American does not depend on blood type, the definition of a Japanese does. This is a difference that you have to negotiate in your (and your family's) daily life. However, one of these positions is not "wrong"."

But the whole point of the Oguma book is that the definition of "being Japanese" has changed over the years to many different positions in order to fulfill specific political goals. When Japan was colonizing Korea, "Koreans and Japanese were the same race." When empire was lost, the definition became much more narrow for a totally separate set of reasons.

Isn't it more post-modern and radical to ask about the origin of ideas, the political power implied in these of "being Japanese" than just to call the debate "off-limits"?

But for all your theoretical confidence and disgust at us intellectual inferiors, you have not the faintest idea when these ideas of blood purity started or why!

I'm delighted that Oguma shows how Japaneseness has changed depending on the needs and perspectives of the time. It's a point I wholeheartedly support, as a cultural relativist. But it's also a point that can be applied to the academic narrative itself. Answers to the question "How long has this been going on?"

http://imomus.livejournal.com/112911.html

will be supplied according to the argument a particular academic is advancing, his need to deconstruct and discredit the views of his intellectual and political opponents, the fashionable topics that get you grants and chairs and funding at any given point, and the kind of narrative the culture at large wants to spin about itself. History is remade daily. If you click the link above, you'll see me making fun of some BBC arts presenter's claim that "the modern cult of celebrity begins in the 18th century with Sir Joshua Reynolds". We remake the past in our image, or we remake it in order to scare people off certain ideas in the present. From the bit of Oguma you quote, it seems he wants to scare people off the blood type cult by linking it firmly with fascist ideology. This is not an objective link, though. As a description of how the blood type cult works in contemporary Japan, it tells us very little. It's a narrative link, a kind of cautionary metaphor.

By the way, I don't think anybody here is an "intellectual inferior". And I'm delighted you have access to these books, and share bits of them with us. You can't get them here in Berlin.

Could the Japanese people's peculiar individuality complex have come about, among other things, as a result of feeling _inferior_ to the Chinese, who were a well-established civilisation by the time the Kojiki were written, and from whom they derived fundamental aspects of their intellectual and material culture?

Momus: As far as I'm able to read that quote, Oguma specifically links pre-war Showa research into blood type with eugenics and not fascist ideology. Interest in eugenics during that period wasn't restricted to fascists alone. As you say, "We remake the past in our image, or we remake it in order to scare people off certain ideas in the present". Isn't it now the case that eugenics has been remade as something commonly viewed as solely of interest to Nazis, rather than the more objective case that it was a field of interest to people from a wide variety of political ideologies?

Also, as you you say, "as a description of how the blood type cult works in contemporary Japan, it tells us very little". Exactly! At no point does Oguma mention fascism, or indeed Nazism. Neither does he make any claim to be investigating blood types as a contemporary phenomenon. I'd suggest that Oguma readily understands the many distinctions between Showa-era national ideology and what might be termed fascist or indeed Nazi. Admittedly, us readers here at Neomarxisme might be quicker to leap at what may seem such tempting bait.

There's a reasonable account of the history of blood types in Japan here:

http://metropolis.co.jp/tokyofeaturestoriesarchive349/320/tokyofeaturestoriesinc.htm

And someone does mention Nazis!:

"In 1937, as Japan neared conclusion of a mutual defense alliance with Germany and Italy, Atsumasa Aragaki, another expert in the field, offered this picture of the future in a popular women's magazine: "It is thought that among the graduates of our military academies, the men who will one day be the military leaders of this country, A- and B-blood types will decrease, and in the future, an overwhelming majority will be O type. O is the type of the internationally popular Hitler and Mussolini, and just as the imperial minister is the possessor of a bold O type, O-type blood will give rise to the most preeminent politicians." Having calmed any fears about global unrest with this comment, Aragaki addressed the female readership. "The genial and self-sacrificing type A woman is the ideal mate for the type O man. In much the same way, the calm and intelligent type O woman is the ideal mate for the type A man."

"I point out that I'm delighted for the Japanese character to be changing, as long as it's Japanese themselves who are changing it"

I think the problem is a Scottish person can't understand the American cultural value of the Marketplace of Ideas. Marxy's posts about Japan might be "rude" or "insulting" according to your own cultural directives, but it cannot be said to be "wrong".

"And I'm delighted you have access to these books, and share bits of them with us. You can't get them here in Berlin."

Sure. Amazon doesn't deliver here. And there are no Departments of Japan Studies at none of the Universities here.

Don't pretend you would be reading those books if only you had access to them. (And in any case, you would only be able to read the English literature.)

Momus screeched: "Don't you see that by making this metaphor about sewers, you are basically saying that Japanese beliefs are "shit"? And that that's deeply reactionary and racist?"

I think you'd win over a lot more people if you didn't use such ridiculously reductivist arguments, Momus. Anyone who opposes certain aspects of another culture isn't automatically a neo-conservative, and accusing them of that only undermines your argument. I find myself agreeing with you a lot of the time until you post stuff like that; it's a sign of someone who knows their position in a debate is weak.

As far as I can see (and correct me if I've been massively mis-reading this blog) Marxy isn't advocating regime change through military force, merely pointing out parts of Japanese culture that don't sit well with his love of the country. Sometimes it takes an outsider's perspective to even notice flaws in a system and to be able to suggest improvements. Should the rest of the world have sat by and given tacit approval through silence during apartheid because "it's one of those things that make [South Africans] who they are and outsiders couldn't possibly understand"? Should we as Brits sit by as the government tramples our civil rights and ignores the electorate on an almost daily basis because it's not the British thing to do to complain? Would Ghandi have had no right to deliver his message if he hadn't been been born in India?

To borrow a quote from Desperate Housewives (never thought I'd say that) "The opposite of love isn't hate, it's indifference." We wouldn't criticise parts of Japanese society if we didn't care about it. I don't read any blogs about Uzbekhistan because I just don't have an interest in it. Hating the rise of Japanese nationalism doesn't mean I hate the country; quite the opposite in fact. Equally, one of the things I love about Japan (which is noticeably absent in China, for example, and is rapidly disappearing in good ol' Blighty) is the fact that I can criticise aspects of the society that I don't like. It's not like anyone with any power is going to listen to a foreigner complaining about Japan anyway.

The Momus Show everyone - mission accomplished!

Don't worry Momus, the foreign resident in japan goes through cycles. One year Japan is different, the next one realizes people are people, then the next the Japanese are bizarre again, and so on. (this cycle is impacted by one's increasing Japanese ability and ability to read between the lines of Japanese culture). One year every little thing is worth complaining about, the next one decides that it's none of their business, then they're back to trying to change Japanese society again, then the next they accept it because it's simply not worth worrying about and it's easier to simply take advantage of the loophole of being a foreigner. And so on and so forth...

You may have experienced similar tendencies in yourself and amongst your friends in the various places you have lived and visited.

In other words, next year this time we'll probably tune into this blog and see Marxy's five part series on great things about his adopted (and married-into) nation.

I don't know... I have almost been blogging for three years now.

Hmm...

Perhaps this is just the inevitable outcome of pulling together a large subsection of misanthropic, highly-opinionated, image-conscious, www.introverts, who are all striving to be perceived as being more Japanese than the Japanese?

Or is it just the consequence of treating a culture as a systematic means of accruing capital, for which to supplement the inadequacies found within particular organs, past-histories, and/or waning music career(s)?

Or is it the last, best single outlet available for a collective of overly-educated, under-valued individuals who want to desperately froth about the hopelessness of the system they have willing chosen to accept, and yet have no intentions of ever trying to actually correct?

I guess I don't know.

But, for being so cool, you guys sure are a drag.

: /

"2. Koseki. This is the big one. Look at they way adopted children or children of divorce are noted on their Koseki and how that can affect their future in terms of getting a job, marriage, etc. Maybe this can also partially account for the low adoption rate?"

A generation or two ago adoption in Japan was extremely common, but it wasn't done impersonally through agencies. Childless families (or at least son-less) would adopt the younger male children of relatives or people in the neighborhood so that the family line of their house would not die out. Because there was a policy of inheritance to the first born son, younger sons were often eager to be adopted by another family and continue their name and traditions.

Important things to note- adoption was not just of infants, but even adults.

Family name, not blood, was most important.

This tradition is dead for two reasons: the low birth rates mean there are few second and third sons, and second the inheritance laws have changed from primogeniture to shared inheritance.

>I don't know... I have almost been blogging for three years now.

one would assume that marxy is trying to beat the japs using (what he percieves to be) their own game. kamikaze tactics etc.

wow, last 3 - 4 coments are excellent. the link between current interest in blood-types and nazism has got to be the most absurd thing i've come across here. (i'm sure Oguma knows what he's talking about, i mean the way the discussion developed here).

>Family name, not blood, was most important.
great point that still lingers.

what's funny is that all going backwards is taking us so far from what are real current issues in contemporary japan. Say families adopting/making 'phantom children' etc. by the time that information is translated into westernese by not so competent people it will again have to be turned again into some freaky-japan nation of aliens piece of hysteria.

Alin over at Click Opera writes:

"I've been sickened all afternoon from reading those discussions"

about this thread...

A tad bit thin-skinned, don't you think.

Momus and Alin at the Coffee Shop:

Momus: A coffee.
Alin: Aco ffe.
Waitress: Would you like sugar with that?
Momus: Sugar?! Sugar!? First of all, http://imomus.livejournal.com/263925.html.
Waitress: What do you mean slash-slash?
Momus: Look, don't you see how alarming and reactionary this sugar talk is, in a world where Blair uses "liberalism" to justify self-interested interventions which kill hundreds of thousands of people?
Waitress: There are other coffee shops, you know?
Momus: (Destroys table in outrage) Sugar! This gives me an excellent idea for an essay!

(Apologies to mild-mannered Nick Currie!)

(Ten minutes later)

Alin: (barfs) Sugar?!

that's better , hey!

> I've been sickened all afternoon

i wonder if it's just the supposedly incromprehensible way i write that always makes you miss my point.

in the discussion(more or less) at click opera you and some supporter(s) were saying that you just neutrally dropped text here and everything was reaction from 'the opposition', and i'm saying do you yourself actually believe that ? are you expecting anyone to believe that ?
lame, lame , lame and devious. give me open racism and hatred anytime over this.

I like these satirical dialogues, it's an entertaining sitcom-like way to extend the debate in more interesting ways.

I propose we invent an inverse Marxy, a Japanese blogger who lives in Tennessee and blogs, day in, day out, about things he thinks are wrong with the American system. Masahiro was a big fan of American irony-geek rock in the 90s -- Weezer, The Rentals and They Might Be Giants. Lured by this dazzling firework display of talent, Masahiro moved to the US, married an American, and got a job in a library in Tennessee. When irony-rock fizzled and his job turned out to be a humiliating chore, Masahiro decided that blogging would be more fun than sitting at home of an evening strumming out covers of "Friends of P" and "A Little Birdhouse in your Soul".

And so Masaheroism was born. Soon it attracted a firm following of similarly disaffected Japanese exiles, many of them also disappointed by the disappearance of irony-geek rock. (Others missed Grunge, but could identify with the general feeling-set.) Masahero devoured books of sociology, some written by Americans, others by Japanese. What they shared, though, was at least one chapter critical of present-day America, with the suggestion not only that the empire was in terminal decline, but that many apparently-innocent aspects of everyday life in the nation related back to atrocities like Truman's use of nuclear weapons on civilian populations.

Masahiro this week has blogged about Britney's shave job, managing to link it to both Hiroshima and the irresponsibly loose American definition of citizenship (Britney, after all, is British). He's also posted a big piece about slavery and its relationship to the Clear Channel monopoly. Comment numbers have been good, although it's a bit disappointing that so few controversialists have ordered Masahiro's EP, "American Culture Killed My Dog".

"although it's a bit disappointing that so few controversialists have ordered Masahiro's EP,"

When I grow up, I want to be a somewhat successful musician who goes onto other musicians' blogs and rubs it in their faces that their records don't sell as well as mine.

I'm sure our sales figures aren't that terribly different. But since I'd had it rubbed into my face that I hadn't read the exact same books that you had, the gloves did seem to be off!

you had it rubbed into your face that making wrong claims about books you haven't read does not make you seem terribly clever. That's something different.

Marxy, he's bullying me! Make him stop!

I'm a little late in catching this, but Judas Priest, Momus! I define my terms and you accuse me of sophistry? That's rich. Exactly what model of debate are you working with? Should I be more vague, obtuse, opaque? I mean, disagree with me about how we should define A) conservatism or B) your own position, but don't hate on me for trying, in good faith, to define terms. よろしくお願いします。

PS: If there were such a "Masahiro" (and who's to say there isn't?), I'd love to read his blog. Hell, I might even buy his EP, if I weren't a total cheapskate.

Alin, I kind of get what you're saying with the Theosophists- they were (are?) an interesting phenomenon. Also, I can dig the relation between proto-science/science/pseudo-science- fascinating stuff.

Momus, your little description of Masahiroism did put a smile on my face. That actually does sound like a very fun blog, and honestly I expect that something much like it exists out there somewhere, if you look hard enough through hatena.

I would, however, suggest that "irony-geek rock" is alive and thriving compared to shibuya-kei. They Might Be Giants even still make music that I enjoy, even if Weezer stopped doing so like a decade ago. Does Masahiro think that the TMBG children's albums are a distillation of the band's core musical values, or sellout schlock? How does he feel about the more recent mini-wave of irony-geek rap?

At "the frog in a well",Japan history group blogs.They had this article called "D-Mat and Blood type thing"which is just about this subject(blood types,I mean,Not Momus-Marxy disputes).Funny nobody mentions this yet......

One thought:
When I went to UK in '91,There was a special program about "Japan Problem" in Channel 4,featuring Clive James with the usual"The Japanese were coming!The Japanese were coming!"tone.The program invited the post-modern chic academic Asada Akira ,conservative playwriter Yamazaki Masakazu and of course Karel Van Wolfren .They discuss the current status of Japan and James did all the usual "Why Japan?" gaijin questions and the three answered in their own way.The talks were heated but everyone's opinion didn't mesh with each other probably due to the style of their narrative and method to reach the subject.The viewer probably got the impression that Japan is indeed the land of inscrutability and the only sane man in the program was Clive James.

Deja vu?C'mon people.You gotta have a wa!

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