A guide to seal use in Japan - the types of seal
- Filed under: Japan, Reference
- Date: Apr 19, 2008 15:24 JST
- Tags: Accommodation, Banking, Contracts, Hanko, Inkan, Japanese customs, Seals
One holdover from Chinese culture which has persisted in Japan, though not elsewhere in Asia to any great extent, is the use of seals, in much the same capacity as signatures are used elsewhere. The seal (called in various contexts a hanko (判子), or inkan (印鑑)) is something of a necessity for life in Japan, though this is very slowly changing, and since it is particularly necessary for such tasks as securing accommodation, as well as much interaction with government and when legally binding contracts are called for, I will describe various aspects of the system over a number of articles, particularly with reference to the situation a foreigner might face. In this article I will explain the types of seal.
Seals in Japan can basically be divided into those for individual use (個人) and those for use by legal entities (法人: companies and the like); each class has a further division into legally binding seals used for signing contracts, typically registered with the government, and (essentially) non-legally binding seals simply for acknowledging documents, invoices, etc. The most commonly encountered are those for individual use, with the legally binding and officially registered sort called a jitsuin (実印), or todokein (届印), and the everyday use kind referred to as a mitomein (認印).
Both individuals and companies often also have a special seal (the same status as a jitsuin) reserved for use with banks (銀行印, ginkouin), although these are basically optional: larger organisations clearly do not want unauthorised employees having access to a director’s seal, but they may still be entrusted with dealing with banks. Individuals may want all bank documents impressed with a special seal for the same kind of security reasons.
Each type has a traditional range of sizes, layouts and shapes, with the only major exception to the circular seal being the mitomein of a company, called a kakuin (角印), which is large and square. Each type generally has certain conventions as to whether marks are shown to tell if it is being held right side up, or whether a more ergonomic handle is used than the typical unadorned cylinder. Rubber stamps are generally only used for stamping unimportant documents en masse, and are explicitly not usable in most legal capacities, as they are held to be too easily deformable.
Impressing one’s seal is called ouin (押印), and there is typically a box, often with a nice circular target, in the appropriate spot on the document in question; it is almost always done using specially provided red ink. I shall deal with how to physically do this in a later article, as it is not so straightforward to produce the perfect impressions required for legal documents. Usually the appropriate seal to use will be explicitly specified, if not then it is probably prudent to assume the mitomein class is called for, as the jitsuin class should be used sparingly.
Happily for anyone who is bemused by the necessity of keeping thousands of glorified woodcarvers in work for dubious security advantages (I expect forgers are laughing at this pitiful technology), the signature (サイン, or sign) is increasingly becoming acceptable in place of a seal impression: deliveries and many other instances of hanko use are now more easily signed for than stamped for. The more adventurous banks now also allow signature usage, but the Japanese government seems loathe to relax its own, frequently onerous, requirements for any activity resulting in legally binding outcomes to be accompanied by a slew of carefully sealed documents.
