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Comment by davyjones | Hacker News Reader

> When printed, it looks exactly the same as a 'stamped' inkan

Would it hold in court in case of a dispute?

It is the routine and widely accepted practice of many Japanese corporations to use electronic reproductions of their company seal for routine business correspondence such as invoices. Be forewarned, if you ask me for a source, I'm going to cite 常識。

I see. I was specifically told by UFJ staff that a printout of a seal will not work for some of my bank papers. Hence was curious.

Aside, if you are coming to Osaka sometime and have a free evening, do let me know. Would love to hang out. Besides, I have to thank you in person for some excellent advice that worked out very well.

The key part of Patrick's comment is "routine business correspondence." Banking (or anything involving city/prefecture laws) are definitely not routine business, and would require the use of an actual seal (銀行印） that is registered with the city office.

When I was applying for my house loan, the exactitude of the forms I had to fill out was staggering, and each needed to be hand-written, in a specific format, with my personal seal that is registered with the city office. Any mistakes means I had to rewrite the form.

My invoices to clients, on the other hand, are generally printed and sent with the seal on them already. However, all of my clients do require printed invoices to be mailed to them.

This is an important question. We've been working with a Japanese lawyer to help us make we're covered on these legal issues.

The advice we've received is that the important point is whether or not the sending party intended to give legal effects to the document. If so, it is a legally valid document.

This reflects our actual experience at my original company Webnet IT, where our vendors (huge Japanese 3000+ employee companies) send us documents with digital hanko images.

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