In Meiji period, Japanese traditional autograph “Kaou” was abolished and not in use practically. In the case of deciding proposal in Cabinet meeting, the prime minister or ministers made it rule to stamp seal on the agenda. “Kaou” sign was traditionally used only in this case.
Seal of signature.
commoner’s seal usage was disputed over the problem of whether for adopting seal or signature.
The department of justice in Meiji government suggested to adopt both signature and sealing, and raise up solutions down below.
1,It is thinkable for worst scenario to infringe the right of property by counterfeit and stealing.
2. It is not only easy for seal to counterfeit but also to be able to stamp other person’s seal on court documents, which causes a problem on the process of suit in court.
3, It is quite difficult to imitate someone’s writing.
4, Therefore, sealing is inferior to signature at all.
In the viewpoint of judgement of true or false, signature is favorable but the literacy rate was still low at the time and there were a lot of people who didn’t have an ability of writing. Hence, because it was quite difficult to quit using seal and adopt signature, meanwhile, used both seal and signature and raise up the literacy rate during the enforcement of this policy.
However, banks took objection of this policy suggestion. Banks insisted the issued documents were huge amount and giving signature and seal on all the documents had a possibility to make bank tasks complex. After all, the department of justice was overpowered by banks with insistence of continuing the custom of sealing and all documents were approved by signing and sealing.
The dispute between seal and signature was settled with the victory of seal supporters but their ground they are supportive of using seal was mainly following points.
1, Requiring signature to Japanese is not suitable for Japanese traditional custom.
2, Ignoring using a seal is not appropriate because Japanese have got used to using seal.
3, There are many illiterate people in Japan
4. It is inconvenient for business man to sign on documents like stock certificate.
5, No worries that seal is stolen because it is kept under lock.
6, It is easy to find a counterfeit seal but quit difficult to judge authenticity of writing.
It has already passed more than 100 years since this argument advocated. Japanese society, economy and culture was in progression dramatically during this term. Nevertheless, it is really strange phenomenon seal that supremacism shows no sign of abating.