Begin Japanology – Name Seals / Hanko (2006) [video] | Hacker News Reader

Begin Japanology – Name Seals / Hanko (2006) [video]

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I really want one of these.

I hate signing my name. I never sign anything the same way twice, and it's always a random scribble. I've actually gotten into fights with my bank over this, and before my landlord switched to electronic signatures, signing my lease every year was a huge chore due to the number of signatures involved. Maybe if I'm lucky, the first part of the scribble will look vaguely like the left half of a cursive A, but it falls apart after that. The only area where I'm consistent at all is my initials: I always write my initials as a ligature, as my initials are AJB, which easily link up. [0]

So I really envy that the Japanese can just drop down a stamp and be done with it. I've actually been considering having a custom seal made for me, either using my initials ligature (see [0]) or possibly with my name written in Japanese. I should explain the latter: I decided a while back that if I ever need to write my name in Japanese, instead of rendering my name in katakana [1], I'd use a Japanese name that has similar sound/meaning to my own [2].

[0] The main one I use, and an alternative I've been experimenting with https://i.imgur.com/Z30PLre.jpg

[1] Amy Book -> エイミー・ブック

[2] 本えみ <- 本 is the kanji for "Book", and in my name I prefer to read it as もと (Moto), and えみ is Emi (written in hiragana, which is a syllabary that carries no semantic meaning), a fairly common Japanese name that sounds similar to Amy.

When I was a kid, I worked at Office Warehouse (now Staples or whatever bought them). We sold lots of 'Signature Stamps', which were simply a custom-made rubber stamp with your signature on it. IIRC, the customers that bought them were business owners who needed to sign lots of checks. I'm pretty sure this was both normal and considered legal in the US.

If you have no Japanese roots I'd rather avoid using kanji and name semantics. Names don't have any meaning and different spelling than one on your official documents may lead to confusion. Only if you ever want to use it legally, of course. If it's just for kicks, then, by all means, go ahead.

It's not clear by this comment if you live in Japan, but if you do, it's quite common to have a hanko even for foreign names (custom made, of course, ~￥1000+).

If you live in the US, signature seals are quite uncommon but probably acceptable.

That said, carrying around a seal (and sometimes forgetting it) is not particularly fun.

> It's not clear by this comment if you live in Japan, but if you do, it's quite common to have a hanko even for foreign names (custom made, of course, ~￥1000+).

Nah, I live in Texas. I'm just a weeb.

Beware! Beware! Beware of the time sink that is watching "Begin Japanology" episodes!

For those of you ready to fall down this rabbit hole, I've created this just for you:

http://Japanology.tv

Pull requests / data updates welcome :)

Too late, my friend, too late. There are few things more satisfying than to listen to Peter Barakan calmly explaining some quaint Japanese phenomenon like the history of pens, or the importance of lunch boxes, etc. The world regains its balance, there is order in the universe after all ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begin_Japanology

[Hello my name is Peter Barakan Intensifies]

>I've heard a lot about -- and I'm going to do it, right now

One time I emailed him asking if he'd record a personalised wedding message to my friends, and he did!

Gah, I've seen altogether dozens and dozens of hours of this show, to the point where I was hunting down "lost" or hard to find episodes.

Barakan is a treasure.

I have not seen this but wanted to make people aware the NHK is available on streaming platforms and has no end to cool content, such as:

[1] Japanology Plus (a sequel to Begin Japanology?) https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/tv/japanologyplus/

[2] Journeys in Japan: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/program/video/jo...

[3] 10 Years with Hayao Mizaki https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/program/video/10...

Do you know what platforms and apps? Some of my absolute favorite shows are on NHK. This page wasn't very clear: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/tv/howto/

I get NHK on the NVIDIA Shield (my main device). It is also available on Roku. Programming may vary between devices, but these two both have Japanology Plus and the Mayao Miyazaki special.

Thank you! I use an NVIDIA Shield as well.

A friend made a list of all the Begin Japanology chapters. An incredible time sink, but amazing nonetheless:

http://japanology.tv/

Ironically, in Japan, the video is geo-blocked by Sony Music Entertainment Japan:

この動画には Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc. さんのコンテンツが含まれており、お住まいの地域では著作権上の問題で権利所有者によりブロックされています。

I posted this because I find it interesting as a form of authentication, compared to a signature. Especially with one person having multiple seals, for different purposes.

A few years ago there was a case in China. Someone forged documents in the name of a mayor, using a seal with the mayor's name on it. The authorities later found it fake because the mayor used a different seal design. (Just a random detail in a complicated lawsuit.)

It would have been difficult if nobody else had seen his real seal though.

For important hanko seals used in Japan (for business, loans, etc.) they are registered with the local ward office so that wouldn't be an issue.

This system is far from perfect though. For example:

Forget the hanko home? Too bad, you’re sol.

Have an generic surname? Be ready to pay for an unique hanko, because the generic ones are sold at minimum for 100¥.

Live as an foreigner in japan? Prepare to write your signature again, again and again as the government official requires all the signatures to look exactly the same.

It’s also easily copyable if you know how the other person’s hanko looks like.

I’m just hoping japanese would move into hand written / electronic authentications. They are much harder to fake and you are not restricted by a small item which you may not always have with you.

As a foreigner you still can make yourself a hanko - just use katakana. You should, even, as there are places (although only few) that won't accept your signature. You can stamp it everywhere, if you want, but honestly? It is much more convenient to just sign wherever you can. Sometimes they will ask you if you have a hanko and would prefer it, but if you don't they would still accept signature.

I can't watch this because I'm in Japan and its geoblocked but hanko can be convenient. - you can leave a hanko with an authorized person to sign on your behalf (eg when you're a CEO traveling abroad). - you can unregister your hanko if it's stolen - as you said you can have multiple hanko for various purposes. For large purposes like buying a house, it will be verified against the hanko the you registered in your city

On the other hand, - if it wears out or part of it breaks, OCR algorithms can flag your hanko stamp and stop a basic transaction. - As a foreigner, you have the right to sign instead of use a hanko, but in use for banking or whatever, it is run through the same hanko verification OCR algorithms, meaning your transactions using signatures are sometimes flagged due to 2 slightly different signatures - A stolen hanko is a real liability risk (this is why you should not use your banking hanko for accepting packages, etc, but rather use a separate one)

> I can't watch this because I'm in Japan and its geoblocked but hanko can be convenient. - you can leave a hanko with an authorized person to sign on your behalf (eg when you're a CEO traveling abroad). - you can unregister your hanko if it's stolen - as you said you can have multiple hanko for various purposes. For large purposes like buying a house, it will be verified against the hanko the you registered in your city

> As a foreigner, you have the right to sign instead of use a hanko, but in use for banking or whatever, it is run through the same hanko verification OCR algorithms, meaning your transactions using signatures are sometimes flagged due to 2 slightly different signatures

As someone who was required to sign something at the post office and literally sent home to practice their signature until it resembles one on an almost 10 years old ID, I thing I'd prefer a stamp. I would not get anything done.

It used to be a commonplace (and interesting) to see Japanese people frequently take out their stamp for anything requiring a "signature" but in recent years I really haven't seen it happening much. I was always able to use a signature on any official document and I think this has become a much more acceptable form of verification for Japanese people nowadays.

Also, it's a shame those episodes are geoblocked in Japan since some of the people who'd most enjoy and benefit from them are people who're visiting Japan for an extended period.

I'm no expert but I think they're still fairly commonly used in China. There's a rather popular small cheap 40w laser engraver (3020) sold on sites like Alibaba designed for stamp making that's become fairly popular elsewhere for hobbyist usage.

Docusign partnered with a Japanese manufacturer of hanko to create an authentication device.[1] That was in 2015. What happened to that? It seemed a nice way to package up 2-factor authentication.

[1] https://www.docusign.com/press-releases/docusign-and-shachih...

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