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Recently I came across this phrase:

血液型に関係したことって、日本では、すごく人気がある

Why is 関係した in the past and not in the present? In this case, is there any difference between them?

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Consider the English verb relate. We commonly use the past-tense form as an adjective.

血液型に関係したこと
    ↓
things related to blood type

This is one of those uncommon areas where the Japanese and English grammar line up -- likely due to the shared underlying nature of the concept. The relation itself is something that is already established, so we use the past tense (or completed aspect, if we're being more specific).

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  • This "related" is the past participle of "relate", not the past tense form. The two forms happen to coincide for most verbs, but the difference surfaces for some irregular verbs (e.g., "the answer written by X" is not "the answer wrote by X").
    – L. F.
    Nov 24, 2022 at 20:28
  • @L.F., yes, but ultimately not terribly relevant -- the key is that both forms of English verbs are past, expressing a completed aspect with relation to the action of the verb (hence my parenthetical comment). For purposes of cross-linguistic comparison, it's also worth noting that Japanese has no distinction between past tense and past participle.
    – Eiríkr Útlendi
    Nov 25, 2022 at 4:23

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