Hello, I have a stupid question. I’m moving to Japan in a couple of weeks and I’ve heard some conflicting things about foreigners getting Hanko seals. I’ve seen sources say that a foreign name needs to either be in romaji or katakana, but I’ve heard some anecdotes of foreigners getting kanji approved.
So, my last name is also a name of a profession. Let’s say “Carpenter” (that’s not it, but same kind of last name). Could I potentially get approved for 大工 (だいく) on my Hanko seal? I would assume I can’t, but I wanted to ask anyway. Even if I could get approved, would that look stupid to Japanese people to have a profession as a seal?
Any other tips on hanko seals for foreigners? Thanks
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Your registered seal must be in Katakana or romaji.
Your non-registered seal, which has no legal merit, but can be used like a signature, can be pretty much whatever you want (from my understanding), but they’re sort of useless, as more and more places accept signatures.
My wife flew out ahead of me and has been there for about a month now.
Our surname is a word that has a kanji when translated. She was advised by he relocation support that she could use that Kanji so that’s what she has done.
Once you arrive ask the city hall you will be living in. When I ordered my hanko, we asked city hall and they specifically said they preferred foreigners to use Romanji for their hanko.
And very few people will see your official hanko, literally city hall, bank very rarely and a few other people. what it actually shows does not matter.
It actually varies between the city hall where you register at.
Sendai city hall allowed katakana, but shizuoka city hall required it to be in romanji exactly the same as my last name in my passport.
My normal one that I use for signing packages that the delivery guy brings is just a pre-made “鈴木” one that I bought at the hardware store. My officially registered one has my family name in Katakana, but to register it, my city hall had to register an alias for me.
> Could I potentially get approved for 大工 (だいく) on my Hanko seal?
As people have already mentioned, if the hanko in question is the official\registered one – that’ll depend on local city\prefecture\ward regulations, but usually kana is recommended (as it’s kind of universal).
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> would that look stupid to Japanese people to have a profession as a seal?
Depends. If there is a proper kanji translation – that might be ok. But trying to use a kanji (or a few) that just sounds “like the surname” would cause a lot of confusion.
Few years ago I had to order something online and the form refused to accept anything except for kanji in “name\family name” field, so I went with the “let’s grab some kanji one can read as my surname”… you should have seen the super confused faces of a JP post courier and our office secretary trying to find the person with a “name like somebody did a faceroll on keyboard while under heavy influence” and almost sending the package back.
“Let’s say “Carpenter” (that’s not it, but same kind of last name). Could I potentially get approved for 大工 (だいく”
Damn, this is cringe.
Umm not sure.
I studied in Japanese school, and when I finished they gifted me a Hanko with my name in full Romanji lol.
I use it for banks & apartment contracts and never been an issue.
My hanko is my name in katakana, and I got it custom made online
I’ve only heard for bigger purchases. Didn’t need it to create a bank account or anything related to housing at the ward office (setting up stuff). But I did learn –at least in my ward office of Nakano City– that registering your hanko with the ward office is step 1. Then when you foresee a reason to use it or if it will be requested, you go back to the ward office and they issue you a permit of some sort to show that it’s officially yours. That is step 2 and that “permit” lasts for 1-3 months or something.