We call a seal as “Hanko” among the general public. Hanko is written as “判子” in Kanji. Japanese financial institutions manage a lot of payment procedures and it adopts Hanko to verify the identity of an applicant.
Globally, a contract between a contractor and a contractee is basically concluded by signing on a contract document. Although a “Hanko” seal has deeply penetrated contractual custom in Japan, signing becomes conclusive evidence that shows contractual intention of a person to a contract under Japanese law in Japan. However, practically, there are many cases that you are required to seal stamp on a document simultaneously with signing.
Because a behavior of stamping “Hanko” on documents was intention that both contractor and contractee will promise to fulfill the contents written on a contract same as signing and there is common recognition among Japanese that “Hanko” must be stamped on a important document.
On the other hand, when you are required to stamp “Hanko”, you should be really careful because a stamped document is regarded that you admit you completely understand contractual coverage concluded with a contractor.
Therefore, a stamped document will be treated with higher credibility than a not sampled document in Japan.
Japanese “Hanko” has several types depending on its purpose to use.
- tally impression (Kei-In 契印)
- counter-mark(Wari-In 割印)
- correction seal(Teisei-In 訂正印)
- marginal seal (Sute-In 捨印)
- bank seal (Ginkou-In 銀行印)
- private seal (Mitome-In 認印)
- company seal(Kaisha-In 会社印)
- representative seal(Daiyou-In 代表印)
- rubber seal (Gomu-In ゴム印)
- personnel seal(Shoku-In 職印)
However, Japanese law doesn’t indicate the difference of admissibility of evidence in types of seal. On the other hand, any types of seal has effectiveness of fulfillment of a contract, which means it cannot be guaranteed that there is no problem if you take care only of your registered seal because it is possible to be used illegitimately.