Hanko tradition is coming under fierce criticism
- Posted By
10Pointer
- Categories
Miscellaneous
- Published
19th May, 2020
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- As the number of Covid cases in Japan rise, the hanko tradition is coming under fierce criticism, with industry leaders demanding that the tradition be abandoned.
- Unavoidable use of the ‘hanko’– a personal seal generally made from wood or plastic — for authorising official documents ranging from contracts, marriage registrations and even delivery slips — has been forcing several employees to go to the office to get work done.The hanko is a personal stamp that is equivalent to a signature in other countries, and is an essential part of several transactions.
- Small-sized and circular or square-shaped, the stamp is wet by an ink pad called ‘shuniku’, and the mark that it leaves on a document is called ‘inkan’.
- The use of the traditional seal can be traced back to almost two millennia, when an emperor from China’s Han dynasty gave a solid gold stamp to an envoy from Japan in the year 57 AD.
- It was only during the Meiji era of the late 19th century that a law was passed to create a national certification and registration system, and the use of hanko became widespread.
