I'm in Europe on business this week … and saw this headline in the Guardian

Japan Blood Craze

Idea that blood type defines personality sweeps the country

Japan_blood_craze_headline_2

For what it's worth, this superstition has been around for donkey's years. It seems that there are a lot of popular books on the topic right now… but that's surely no more interesting than the publishing trends in any other country. (A friend pointed out to me last year that there were entire sections in British bookstores devoted to "abused childhood biographies"… which struck me as far wierder than anything I've seen in Japanese bookstores).

What is it about Japan, that makes English-language newspaper editors hunger for the silly stories – at the expense of the real news from Japan? Am I just imagining this, or does the reporting on, say, France, Germany, India also lean towards the frivolous?