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The Post-2020 Anti-Hanko Reform

Japan's anti-hanko reform, or 脱ハンコ (datsu-hanko, "the move away from hanko"), removed seal requirements from the great majority of government procedures after 2020. The change was partial and uneven: daily paperwork went largely seal-free while real estate, vehicle registration, and court-routed filings kept the seal.12

Confirm current details with official sources

Procedures, fees, and requirements can change. Confirm current details at the municipal office, bank, or filing counter handling your specific procedure.

Overview​

The reform began as pandemic-era digitization policy under the Suga administration, led publicly by administrative-reform minister Kono. Headlines suggested the hanko was abolished; the reality kept a defined set of high-stakes procedures sealed while liberalizing almost everything routine.13

The rest of this article separates what changed from what did not, sketches the digital-signature side, and closes with the minimal seal set residents should still own. No completion timetable was ever set, so nothing below implies a finish date.1

What the 2020 push actually did​

In November 2020 Kono announced that seal requirements would be scrapped in nearly 15,000 administrative processes, retaining only about 83, including automobile registration.13 Unregistered everyday seals were abolished across the covered procedures, roughly 99.4 percent of the reviewed seal requirements, while registered-seal procedures stayed.2

The mechanism mattered as much as the numbers. Removing the stamp requirement also removed the need for physical documents and in-person visits, which let each procedure move online afterward.1 The reform was therefore a digitization lever dressed as a stationery change.

What changed in daily life​

Government and ward-office forms​

Routine filings such as residence-record copy requests and vehicle inspection renewals no longer require a seal.2 Many ward-office and tax-office forms now accept a signature alone or no signature at all, which covers most of what residents file in ordinary years.2

Tax, koseki filings, and corporate seals​

Family-register filings dropped the seal on 2021-09-01: marriage, divorce, birth, and death filings are now seal-optional at the municipal counter.4 National tax returns moved seal-free in April 2021, and practitioner guides report company-incorporation seal filing as optional since 2021-02-15 (commercial-guide reporting; confirm with a judicial scrivener for a live filing).5

Real-estate transaction documents liberalized in May 2022: sales contracts and important-matters explanations may be executed and delivered digitally with electronic signatures under the digital-society law package.6 Note the boundary carefully, since executing the contract is not the same as registering the ownership transfer below.

Digital execution is not digital registration

The May 2022 change covers signing and delivering transaction documents. The ownership-transfer registration at the Legal Affairs Bureau is a separate procedure with its own seal requirement, covered in the next section.26

What did not change​

Real estate and vehicle registration​

Ownership-transfer registration applications, commercial and corporate registrations, and vehicle registration still require the registered seal.2 The contract may be signed digitally, but the registration office still expects the jitsuin plus certificate for the transfer itself.26

Courts, notaries, and inheritance paperwork​

Family-court petition paperwork still typically expects a seal: the courts' published forms carry seal fields for the parties' statements and filings.7 Notarized documents, mortgage agreements, inheritance-division agreements, and joint-guarantee contracts likewise remain seal-persistent in practitioner reporting.58

The pattern is consistent: wherever a procedure routes through a court, a notary, or a registration office, the seal survives. Routine filings liberalized; evidence-grade filings did not.

Bank counters at first registration​

Most banks now accept a registered signature from foreign openers, but traditional counters still commonly lead with the seal and some branches still ask for one (as of 2025-01 and 2026-03; confirm current practice with your bank).59 Signature acceptance is branch-level practice rather than statute, so the specific counter's rule governs each opening.5

First registration is the strictest moment

Later transactions often run on cards, PINs, and apps regardless of how the account was opened. The opening counter is where seal expectations bite hardest, so arrive prepared for either reference type.59

The digital-signature side​

The reform's technical counterpart is the My Number Card's chip. Its IC chip carries two electronic certificates under the public personal-authentication framework: one for signatures and one for user identification.1011

The 署名用電子証明書 (shomei-yō denshi shōmeisho, "electronic certificate for signatures") writes the holder's name, address, birth date, and gender into procedures, and is used for e-Tax filing, MynaPortal applications, and private-sector identity verification.1011 Smartphone installation of the certificate function launched in May 2023, extending the same mechanism beyond the physical card.11

What residents should still own​

The current status is exactly what the numbers predict: daily life runs largely seal-free while major life events keep the seal.12 The minimal stack is therefore a small jitsuin with a current certificate for the persistent procedures, plus either a bank seal or a registered signature for counter banking.5

Post-reform daily life is genuinely more accommodating of signature-only, and no resident should buy seals out of generalized anxiety. But property purchase, vehicle registration, inheritance paperwork, and court-routed filings still typically expect a registered seal, so retiring the jitsuin entirely remains premature.275

Good to know​

Do not throw away your jitsuin yet​

The retained procedures plus registration, notarial, and inheritance practice still expect one. The reform removed the everyday seal from government forms, not the registered seal from high-stakes acts.12

Signature acceptance is counter-level practice, not statute​

Branch, municipal, and office implementation is uneven by design, since liberalization arrived procedure by procedure rather than as one blanket rule. The specific counter's current form is the only authority that matters for your filing.59

Check the form, not the headline, before each procedure​

Liberalization landed across 2021 and 2022 in separate revisions, so any single filing's current instructions govern. Headlines about abolition describe the direction of travel, not the state of your next form.64

See also​

References​

Footnotes​

  1. Reuters. "Signed, sealed, delivered: Japan to all but scrap centuries-old custom of stamping paperwork." https://www.reuters.com/article/business/signed-sealed-delivered-japan-to-all-but-scrap-centuries-old-custom-of-stampi-idUSKBN27T0GW/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  2. Nikkei. "行政手続きの認め印全廃 (2020-11-13)." https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXMZO66228520T11C20A1AM1000/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10

  3. Japan Times. "Signed, sealed, discarded: Japan to all but scrap hallowed hanko." https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/11/13/national/hanko-stamping-paperwork/ ↩ ↩2

  4. Nakano City. "離婚届 (divorce filing; koseki filings seal-optional since 2021-09-01)." https://www.city.tokyo-nakano.lg.jp/kurashi/koseki/koseki/rikontodoke.html ↩ ↩2

  5. LO-PAL. "Hanko in Japan 2026: When Foreigners Still Need a Seal." https://lo-pal.app/guide/en/hanko-vs-digital-sig ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  6. RealEstate.co.jp. "Seals no longer required: Digital real estate document delivery to start in May 2022." https://resources.realestate.co.jp/news/seals-no-longer-required-digital-real-estate-document-delivery-to-start-in-may-2022/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  7. Courts of Japan. Family mediation petition forms and filing guide (forms carry seal fields). https://www.courts.go.jp/tokyo-f/vc-files/tokyo-f/01NEW/kaji/t02_03_tyoteirikon_r.pdf ↩ ↩2

  8. office-shoji (judicial scrivener office). "Signature Certificate for Foreign Nationals." https://office-shoji.com/english/2026/07/20/signature-certificate-for-foreign-nationals/ ↩

  9. expat.jp. "How to Open a Bank Account in Japan as a Foreigner (2026 Guide)." https://expat.jp/bank-opening/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  10. Digital Agency. "Japanese Public Key Infrastructure (JPKI)." https://www.digital.go.jp/en/policies/mynumber/private-business/jpki-introduction ↩ ↩2

  11. Digital Agency. "My Number Card Utilization FAQ (electronic certificates)." https://www.digital.go.jp/en/policies/mynumber/private-business/faq ↩ ↩2 ↩3