IN JAPAN, 'What's your type?' is much more than small talk; it can be a paramount question in everything from matchmaking to getting a job.

By type, the Japanese mean blood type, and no amount of scientific debunking can kill a widely held notion that blood tells all.

Last year, four of Japan's top 10 best-sellers were about how blood type determines personality, according to Japan's largest book distributor, Tohan Co.

The books' publisher, Bungeisha, says the series - one each for types B, O, A, and AB - has combined sales of well over 5 million copies.

Mr Taku Kabeya, chief editor at Bungeisha, thinks the appeal comes from having one's self-image confirmed.

As defined by the books, type As are sensitive perfectionists but over-anxious; Type Bs are cheerful but eccentric and selfish; Os are curious, generous but stubborn; and ABs are arty but mysterious and unpredictable.

All that may sound like a horoscope, but the public doesn't seem to care.

Even Prime Minister Taro Aso seems to consider it important enough to reveal in his official profile on the Web - by the way, he's an A. His rival, opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa, is a B.

The craze has gone to the tech world too.

Blood type features in a Nintendo DS game.

And fashion has been tailored to accommodate this blood fetish.

For example, 'lucky bags' of women's accessories tailored to blood type are sold at Tokyo's Printemps department store.

A TV network is set to broadcast a comedy about women seeking husbands according to blood type.

It doesn't stop there.

Matchmaking agencies provide blood-type compatibility tests, and some companies make decisions about assignments based on employees' blood types.

Children at some kindergartens are divided up by blood type, and the women's softball team that won gold at the Beijing Olympics used the theory to customize each player's training.

Not all see the craze as harmless fun, and the Japanese now have a term, 'bura-hara' or blood-type harassment.

And, despite repeated warnings, many employers continue to ask blood types at job interviews, said Junichi Wadayama, an official at the Health, Welfare and Labour Ministry.

He said: ' It's so widespread that most people, even company officials, are not aware that asking blood types could lead to discrimination.'

Blood types, determined by the proteins in the blood, have nothing to do with personality, said

Mr Satoru Kikuchi, associate professor of psychology at Shinshu University.

It's all a sham

He declared: 'It's simply sham science.

'The idea encourages people to judge others by the blood types, without trying to understand them as human beings. It's like racism.'

This use of blood-typing has unsavoury roots.

The theory was imported from Nazi race ideologues and adopted by Japan's militarist government in the 1930s to breed better soldiers. The idea was scrapped years later and the craze faded.

But it resurfaced in the 1970s as Masahiko Nomi, an advocate with no medical background, gave the theory mass appeal.

As for the best-selling books, they tend to stop short of blood-type determinism, suggesting instead that while blood type creates personality tendencies, it's hardly definitive.

'Good job, you're done. So how do you feel about the results?' one blood type manual asks on its closing page. 'Your type, after all, is what you decide you are.'

This article was first published in The New Paper on Feb 5, 2009.