A Button (blood Type) Emoji

The A button (🅰️) is a white capital A on a red square — officially the blood type A emoji. In Japan, this isn't just a medical label. Blood type is Japan's horoscope: 99% of Japanese people know their blood type, and it's believed to predict personality, compatibility, and career fit. This system is called ketsuekigata (血液型). Type A is the most common blood type in Japan (~40% of the population) and is associated with being organized, detail-oriented, diplomatic, and anxious — the "perfectionist" type. Japanese dating profiles, celebrity bios, anime characters, and even job postings reference blood type. On Western social media, 🅰️ is mostly used for emphasis ("getting that 🅰️" for grades), wordplay, or the letter A in decorated text. The blood type meaning is secondary outside East Asia.

🅰️ has two lives. In East Asian social media (especially Japanese, Korean, and Taiwanese), it appears in dating profiles, personality quizzes, and celebrity discussions — "she's type A, that explains everything." In Western social media, it's used for letter replacement in stylized text, school/grade references ("got that 🅰️"), and the occasional blood type curiosity post. The B button emoji (🅱️) massively outpaces 🅰️ in Western internet culture because of the deep-fried meme phenomenon — 🅱️ became an ironic letter-replacement tool in surrealist meme culture. 🅰️ never got that treatment.

The blood type personality theory traces back to 1927, when Japanese professor Takeji Furukawa published a paper claiming blood types influenced temperament. His theory was debunked scientifically but never died culturally. It resurfaced in the 1970s when journalist Masahiko Nomi wrote a bestselling book about it, and his son Toshitaka continued the franchise with even bigger sales. Today, ketsuekigata is woven into Japanese daily life: TV morning shows run blood type horoscopes, convenience stores sell blood type-themed products, and anime characters always have their blood type listed in official profiles. The emojis were encoded at U+1F170 (🅰️), U+1F171 (🅱️), U+1F17E (🅾️), and U+1F18E (🆎) in Unicode 6.0 (2010), reflecting their importance in Japanese mobile phone culture — the original emoji sets from Japanese carriers included blood type symbols because they were used that frequently.

Encoded in Unicode 6.0 (2010) as U+1F170 NEGATIVE SQUARED LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A. Part of the Enclosed Alphanumeric Supplement block. Added to Emoji 1.0 in 2015. The blood type emojis were included in the original Japanese carrier emoji sets (SoftBank, DoCoMo, au) that Unicode standardized.

In Japan, blood type is a social identifier as routine as zodiac signs in the West. 99% of Japanese people know their blood type. Dating services match based on it. Morning shows forecast your day by it. But there's a dark side: bura-hara (blood harassment) involves discrimination based on blood type — children bullied in school, job applicants questioned, relationships ended. Types B and AB are most likely to be negatively stereotyped. The government has issued warnings against using blood type in hiring. In the West, blood type emojis are mostly decorative or medical. The personality theory doesn't have cultural traction outside East Asia.

• •The blood type personality theory was proposed by Japanese professor Takeji Furukawa in 1927, debunked scientifically, but revived as a cultural phenomenon in the 1970s by journalist Masahiko Nomi.
• •99% of Japanese people know their blood type. In the US, many people have no idea — they find out only during blood donations or medical emergencies.
• •The blood type emojis were included in the original Japanese carrier emoji sets (SoftBank, DoCoMo, au) because blood type references were that common in Japanese mobile culture.
• •Bura-hara (blood harassment) is a recognized form of discrimination in Japan. The government has warned employers against asking about blood type in job interviews.
• •Type A is ~40% of Japan's population — nearly half the country shares the 'perfectionist' blood type personality label.