Our Man's got a fairly small one, the fella in the estate agent's has got the biggest one Our Man has ever seen, while it is said the Emperor has the fattest in the country. He's probably got more than one. Come to think of it, Our Man has three. Ahh, the clue's in the picture (lifted from a Japan Times story here). Yes, Our Man is talking about hanko, the entirely pointless signature seal that Japanese use almost daily. Oh don't be so culturally insensitive, the hanko is a time-honoured cultural majestic thing of the east, blah, blah, blah, blah. Have you finished? It's a crock. You spend a small fortune on the things, you have to guard them with your life so you can stamp numerous pieces of paper with them (application forms, receipts, local newsletters, pieces of paper at work, delivery invoices, children's homework) when a signature (or nothing at all) would do. In fact, for anything really important, you have to sign for it in the newfangled Western way anyway. Has the paperless office spelt the end of the hanko? Nope. There are virtual hankos now.
Rant over, feel a whole lot better now.
Back to your anime, chaps.
5 comments:
Hah, I ended up obtaining one of those when my electricity nearly got cut off after I signed up for direct debit just before leaving the country for a few weeks, not expecting my bank to reject the debit application because my signature was a few molecules different to the specimen.
It's the hanko-ing one application form five times or so that does Our Man's head in.
The Japanese just love to look at me funny when I actually sign my name for something.
The point of hanko is exactly the same as a signature: it's the gesture that's important. You are doing a standardized gesture signifying that you have read/have understood/agree to the terms/take responsibility/whatever the document is about.
Whether the resulting marks are easy to counterfeit (both hanko and signatures are easy enough) is beside the point. Either one is largely useless as a security device. It's the off-line version of the "yes I agree to the usage terms" button in software installers and online user registrations.
Fair point Janne. Our Man just remembers creasing up when he had to hanko an immigration leaflet five times on one side, five on the other and it was all in official Japanese and he had no idea what he was hankoing. Still, as you say, it is much the same as clicking that "I have read and agreed to everything that I haven't actually read or understood" button Our Man is always clicking.
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