It’s in your blood A crash course in Japan’s blood type theory and what it has to do with golf

Ryo Ishikawa has always been the been the focus of intense Japanese media scrutiny, especially when conducting photo opportunities with a haggis at the 2009 Open Championship.

JAPANESE GOLF – AN UNLIKELY BLOOD SPORT

Words Matt Cooper

FOR A LONG TIME, JAPANESE GOLFERS WERE KNOWN FOR THEIR CAMEO PERFORMANCES ON THE WORLD STAGE, BUT HIDEKI MATSUYAMA TRANSFORMED THAT BECOMING THE FIRST JAPANESE WINNER OF THE MASTERS IN APRIL 2021 - AND BEHIND THE SCENES OF THIS STORY IS AN INTRIGUING MYSTERY SURROUNDING THE NATION'S LEADING STARS.

Talking of the quest to identify young golfing talent, a coach opined recently, “There was a time when we looked for a natural swing, great touch or maybe just real flair for the game.” He shook his head and added: “Now it’s changed. Modern coaches just look for swing speed. If a player can create speed, they figure he can hit it a long way and the rest can be learned.”

The coach looked lost. He was concerned that the game was becoming one-dimensional and worried that he was out of touch with the modern world, so I attempted to cheer him up. “It could be worse,” I said. “In Japan they’d just ask the player what blood group he is!” The coach furrowed his brow. It was clear that I had failed. I hadn’t made life easier. Clearly, my comment hadn’t cheered him up, at best, it left him confused.

My interest in this baffling story was first piqued nearly ten years ago when I noticed that the Japanese Tour’s official website, in addition to the obvious details such as date of birth and nationality, also listed blood group. My initial reaction, other than surprise, was to assign it to the famed Japanese attention to detail, but it was a rather hazy, maybe even lazy, assumption. And, as if to prove the idleness of the thought, it was one I chose not to investigate further.

A couple of years later, I made acquaintance with a new Japanese friend. I mentioned the subject in passing and was suddenly introduced to an explanation I could never have imagined. It turned out that there is a popular belief in Japan that blood type dictates temperament and character, a notion somewhat similar to astrology, but apparently more widespread. •

Indeed, as incredible as it may seem to us, major companies recruit according to blood type, kindergartens make teaching decisions based on the information and government ministers have even blamed errors of judgement on it.

All of which explains why the information is considered essential on the Japanese Tour

website and it immediately prompted the possibility that whilst most golf fans watch a hot-head implode in the final round and say “He choked”, in Japan there might be armchair onlookers gasping: “What do you expect? Google his blood type. Of course he choked. It’s written in his haemoglobin.” •

Google, of course, is exactly where I now headed, determined to learn more of this most unlikely revelation, keen to wonder what it reveals about Japanese golfers. It transpired that the notion only began to take popular hold on Japanese society as recently as the 1970s when Masahiko Nomi wrote a series of best-selling books about the predictive qualities of blood type. His critics insisted that he had no medical qualifications whatsoever, but that didn’t stop Nomi or his son (equally unqualified) who established the Institute of Blood Type Humanics.

At this point, I was expecting to discover that Nomi had been discredited. Instead, I discovered that the idea is sufficiently widespread to have prompted something called bura-hara which is essentially bloodtype harassment. Because of it children are bullied, and adults discriminated against.

What I really wanted to know, however, was its implications for sport and further investigation led me to discover that the Japanese women’s softball team, gold medalists at the 2008 Olympics, was reported to have used customised blood type training and a New York Times article in 2006 claimed that top Japanese professional baseball players tend overwhelmingly to be blood type O. •

Which, of course, returned me to the subject of golfers. Could it be possible that blood type and golf performance were connected? More than that, perhaps one dictates the other?

Half in thrall to the possibility, half wondering if I had finally lost the plot, I headed to the profile page of the Japanese Tour website. By my right hand, I had a list of the top Japanese golfers on the world stage over the last 40 years.

I first typed Tsuneyuki ‘Tommy’ Nakajima, probably the most-recognised Japanese player in the 20th century, a 48-time winner on home soil and the man who famously contended the 1978 Open Championship. His blood type? O.

Next I tried Isao Aoki, the first Japanese winner on the PGA Tour and winner of the 1978 World Matchplay Championship at Wentworth. His blood type was B.

What about the famous Ozaki brothers? Jumbo, whose total of 94 Japanese Tour wins is not only the highest count, but betters Aoki’s second best by a massive 43, is also B. So are his brothers Joe and Jet.

Blood type Ratio in Japan Positive traits Negative traits

A

O

B

AB 40%

30%

20%

10% earnest, neat

easygoing, leadership ability

passionate, creative

talented, composed stubborn, anxious

insensitive, unpunctual

selfish, uncooperative

eccentric, two-faced

Shigyeki Maruyama, a three-time PGA Tour winner? Another B. Shingo Katayama, the cowboy-hatted star of the early years of the 21st century? Also B!

How about the two modern superstars? Ryo Ishikawa, nicknamed the Bashful Prince, is O. But Hideki Matsuyama, six-time winner on the PGA Tour, the highest-ever ranked Japanese player in the world rankings (No. 2) and now the country's first winner of a major championship is yet another B. •

So, seven out of nine of the greatest-ever Japanese men golfers are blood group B. It seemed as if the type was over-represented, so I sought stats. Surely it must be the most common blood type? Wrong. According to three separate sources type B accounts for about 20% of the Japanese population – and yet somehow it accounts nearly 80% of its best golfers.

The next move was to discover what character traits type B personalities are supposed to have and incredibly many seemed apt for golfers: specialists, individualists, goalorientated, selfish. I emailed a Japanese journalist and he replied almost immediately. “Blood type B is perfect for golf,” he wrote, so straightforwardly it ended all debate. “We know that.”

It makes you wonder. Maybe the coaching quest is asking the wrong questions. Maybe the key to unearthing future stars is not how fast a golfer’s arms move, but what is running through his veins. And maybe it’s not ice he needs in there, but blood type B.