Too fixated on blood types to give a donation

　僕は英辞郎を使って英語を読みまくり、インターネットラジオのNHKのラジオジャパン英語ニュースで時事英語を聞きまくってます。（＾＾；
参考「こんな感じで英辞郎を使ってます」

　今日の天声人語の話題は血液型について、確かに日本人ほど血液型で性格が決まると考えている人種は世界広しと言えども他にはないようだ。
　ほとんど軽い話題ではなく、本当に性格が決まると考えているかのように話題にする馬鹿が多い。科学的な根拠は全然ないのにもかかわらず、血液型がどうのと騒ぐ俗悪ＴＶ番組を作るマスゴミ（マスコミでなくまさにマスゴミである）が一番悪いのかもしれない。

Too fixated on blood types to give a donation

05/02/2005

After nearly a year, a craze for TV variety shows about the ABO blood groups seems to have finally subsided. At least this spring, we are no longer being inundated with prime-time programs claiming to explain how people's personality and behavior are influenced by their blood types.

2005年04月24日（日曜日）付
【天声人語】

　１年近くテレビ界をにぎわせた血液型番組のブームがひとまず去った。「最強血液型大実験」「血液型まるごと３時間」。そんな番組をこの春はほとんど見かけない。

Questions have been raised repeatedly since before World War II about pigeonholing people into the four categories of A, B, O and AB blood groups and judging their character traits accordingly. But no matter how often such attempts were dismissed for their dubious scientific worth or criticized for encouraging groundless and biased stereotyping, the subject always resurfaced after a while for avid public consumption.

　ＡＢＯ式の血液型で性格を四つに分けてしまう血液型診断は、戦前から繰り返し批判されてきた。科学的根拠がないとか、偏見を助長するなどと退けられても、しばらくすると息を吹き返す。

It would be nothing more than a harmless pastime to guess the blood groups of famous historic figures: Murasaki Shikibu (from around the 11th century) must be A, Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616) must be O.

In the latest craze, however, type-B people somehow became the target of constant ridicule. In show after show, there were ``experiments'' conducted on entertainment personalities and preschoolers to ``prove'' the personal idiosyncracies of B subjects and deride them.

　「紫式部はきっとＡ型、徳川家康はＯ型か」と推理を楽しむ分には害もあまりない。だが今回は、どういうわけかＢ型が集中的にからかわれた。芸能人や幼稚園児を実験台に、Ｂ型のふるまいや対人関係をあげつらうような番組が目についた。

Between last spring and February this year, as many as 200 complaints were filed with the Broadcasting Ethics and Program Improvement Organization. Many viewers were upset with the TV shows for using the blood groups to pass judgments on people. And concerned parents complained that children were getting into fights because they believed what they watched on TV.

Apparently, many people found the programs offensive even though they knew they were watching them only for mindless entertainment.

　「血液型で人の優劣を決めつけないで」「信じ込んだ子供が血液型でけんかする」。視聴者の声を受け付ける放送倫理・番組向上機構には昨春から今年２月までに、苦情が２００件も寄せられた。娯楽番組のつもりで見て、不快に感じた人が少なくなかったらしい。

The ABO blood groups seem to be a popular subject in South Korea, too, but nowhere else in the world do people lap it up as in Japan. Yet, the public's interest in blood donation is ebbing. About 5.6 million Japanese donate blood annually now, but this number is less than 70 percent of what it was 20 years ago.

　最近では韓国でも人気のようだが、日本ほど血液型が話題にのぼる国も珍しい。それなのに献血に寄せる関心は下がっている。いま年間の献血者は全国で５６０万人ほど。２０年前の７割にも満たない。

Early spring is said to be the leanest season for blood donations, perhaps because this is the start of the fiscal and scholastic years and people are on the move. This year especially, people with pollen allergies seem to be staying away from blood donation centers. To make matters worse, new donation rules will come into effect next month in wake of the recent Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease scare.

The whole nation seems to be anemic this spring. According to the Japanese Red Cross Society, the public's attention never turned to blood donation even at the height of the ABO craze on the boob tube.

　四季を通じて最も献血者が少ないのは春先という。進学や異動で気ぜわしいからか。おまけに今年は花粉症で人々の足が遠のき、来月にはヤコブ病対策の献血制限も本格化する。この春、日本は全体に貧血気味である。日本赤十字社によると、血液型占いがテレビでどんなに盛り上がっても、献血意欲は少しも上向かないそうだ。

--The Asahi Shimbun, April 24(IHT/Asahi: May 2,2005)