Seal Registration (Inkan Toroku) Procedure

Seal registration, or 印鑑登録 (inkan tōroku, "seal registration"), converts an ordinary seal into a 実印 (jitsuin, "registered seal") by recording its impression at your municipal office. Bring the seal, your residence card, and a few minutes at the citizen-affairs counter; you leave with a registration card that prints official certificates later.¹²

Confirm current details with official sources

Procedures, fees, and requirements can change. Confirm current details at the municipal office where your resident record sits, since fees and name rules vary by municipality.

Overview

This article covers registration from both sides: what the owner brings and the rules the seal must pass, and the counter visit itself, including the card and certificates you receive and the fees.

Registration belongs to the municipality holding your resident record, and one person registers exactly one seal.¹

What registration gives you

On completion you receive a seal registration card, the 印鑑登録カード (inkan tōroku kādo, "seal registration card"). Showing the card at the counter lets you obtain a seal registration certificate, the 印鑑登録証明書 (inkan tōroku shōmeisho, "seal registration certificate").¹³ Without the card, some offices refuse the certificate outright, as Yokohama does, while Higashihiroshima issues one to the registrant in person on photo ID.⁴¹

The certificate is the working document. In high-stakes acts the counterparty checks your stamped impression against a current certificate, which is what makes the registered seal trustworthy to strangers.¹² Guard the card the way you guard the seal: together they authenticate you.

The jitsuin-plus-certificate combination is required for purchasing real estate or cars, taking out a loan, and filing a will.³ Everyday paperwork, such as city-hall application forms and parcel receipts, runs on the unregistered 認印 (mitome-in, "everyday seal"), and many online and foreign-based institutions accept a signature.³

What to bring to the counter

Item	Notes
The seal to register	Engraved, within size limits, name matching your resident record15
Residence card	Primary ID; a Special Permanent Resident Certificate, My Number card, or driver's licence also works1627
Application form	The 印鑑登録申請書 (inkan tōroku shinseisho, "seal registration application form"), available at the counter6

Foreign applicants generally apply in person, and Shinjuku requires the applicant to appear in person.⁵⁷⁸ Registrants must be 15 or older; adults under guardianship complete the procedure with a legal representative present.⁹

Proxy registration exists but runs a slower two-step enquiry-and-reply procedure taking several days in at least one city, so plan around it rather than through it.⁶ Applicants without photo ID face a similar delay, since the office may confirm identity by mailed inquiry before issuing the card.¹⁸

The counter procedure step by step

Head for the citizen-affairs counter, the 市民課 (shimin-ka, "citizen affairs section") or 住民課 (jūmin-ka, "residents section") depending on the office.⁸ Some cities handle seal registration at the family-registry counter instead.⁴⁷

The diagram above is the full in-person sequence. The officer presses your seal to capture the impression, verifies it against the rules below and your resident record, and issues the card, usually the same day for in-person applicants with photo ID.⁶²

Rules your seal must pass

Size and material rules

The impression must fit between an 8mm square minimum and a 25mm square maximum: the shortest side 8mm or more, fitting inside a 25mm square.¹⁵ Impressions must be clear and legible, since blurry, chipped, or mass-produced identical impressions are refused.²⁸

Rubber or easily deformable materials are refused outright.¹⁵ Engraved seals in wood, resin, horn, or metal pass, which is why the buying guidance steers registrable seals toward carved materials.

Yokohama's counter also refuses nickname seals and frameless seals, and other cities apply equivalent rules; Ota, for example, refuses nicknames not on the resident record, initials alone, and seals bearing drawings or patterns.⁴⁹

Name matching rules for foreign residents

The engraving must match or reasonably correspond to the name on your resident register.¹² Kanji may be used only where the kanji name appears on the residence card, and alphabet-plus-katakana combinations on one seal are refused.² Variant characters may need confirmation with the counter before you order the seal.⁹

The classic friction point is the katakana-versus-romanization choice. Offices accept either script only where that form appears on your resident record, and the rendering must then stay consistent, since even a small discrepancy on a later document can void it.²⁹¹⁰

Match the seal to the card before visiting

An engraving that differs from the resident record, including an unregistered nickname or initials alone, fails at the counter and costs a second trip plus a re-cut seal. Confirm the accepted rendering with the office first, especially for romanized names.²¹⁰⁴⁹

Fees

The figures below are municipal examples, each dated to the source page that states it; every page was re-checked as still published on 2026-09-25 (confirm current figures with your municipal office).

Item	Municipal examples	Source date
Registration	300 JPY in Higashihiroshima; 300 JPY in Kasama; 500 JPY in Toshima; free initial registration in Hamamatsu (350 JPY for re-registration)1856	Higashihiroshima 2026-08-07; Kasama 2019-05; Toshima 2020-09-17; Hamamatsu 2022-07-19
Certificate per copy at the counter	300 JPY in Yokohama; 330 JPY in Higashihiroshima; 400 JPY in Toshima; 300 JPY in Kasama, the same at its konbini kiosk and vending machine4158	Yokohama 2025-03-01; Higashihiroshima 2026-08-07; Toshima 2020-09-17; Kasama 2019-05
Certificate at a konbini kiosk	200 JPY in Higashihiroshima during a three-year window starting April 20251	Higashihiroshima 2026-08-07
Card reissuance or re-registration	50 JPY in Minato for re-registration or card reissuance; 500 JPY in Kasama for re-registration after losing the card118	Minato undated page, checked 2026-09-25; Kasama 2019-05

Every figure above is one municipality's published figure, not a national rule, so the only safe number for your case is your own municipality's current list.

After registration: card, certificates, and moving

Certificates are issued at the citizen-affairs counter, branch offices, and service corners on presentation of the registration card.⁴¹

In participating municipalities, My Number Card holders can print seal certificates at konbini kiosks, so ask locally whether that channel exists for you.¹ The kiosk draws on the record created at the counter, so it is a pickup channel, not a substitute for registering.

Moving out of the municipality, including leaving Japan, cancels the registration automatically.¹⁷ Return the card to the old office and register fresh at the new one; there is no transfer procedure. Residents who move out and later return to the same address also re-register from scratch; nothing resumes on its own.⁷

To change the registered seal without moving, file a cancellation notice for the old seal, then register the new one.⁶

Good to know

Fees and name rules differ by municipality

Registration runs from free to 500 JPY and counter certificates from 300 to 400 JPY across the offices cited here (source pages dated 2019-05 to 2026-08; confirm current figures with your municipal office).¹⁴⁵⁶⁸ Name-format acceptance is equally local: Ota warns it may refuse a seal another municipality accepted, so treat any ward-specific account, including this one, as an example rather than a promise.⁹

Moving out cancels the registration

The record belongs to the municipality, not to you. A move means a fresh registration with a fresh card, so anyone relocating before a signing should schedule the new registration early.¹¹¹

Losing the registered seal means cancel and re-register

Only the recorded impression verifies, so a lost seal cannot simply be re-declared. Cancel the old record, have a replacement cut, and register it as a new seal.⁶

Carry the registration card for certificates, and leave the seal at home

Counter, branch-office, and kiosk issuance all key off the card or the registration record, not the seal.⁴¹ Carrying the jitsuin around town risks losing the one object that forces a cancellation and fresh registration. Losing the card costs money too: Kasama charges 500 JPY to re-register after a lost card (as of its 2019-05 guide).⁸

Everyday paperwork rarely needs the registered seal

Parcel receipts and routine city-hall application forms take a mitome-in, and many online and foreign-based institutions accept a signature.³ Reserve the counter visit for when a property or car purchase, a loan, or a will actually demands the certificate-backed seal, rather than registering under time pressure for a routine form.

See also

• Jūminhyō: Japan's Residence Record Explained
• How to Request Koseki and Juminhyo Copies
• Filing the Tenshutsu (Move-Out Notification)
• Signature Registration for Foreign Residents

References

Footnotes

1. Higashihiroshima City. "Personal Seal Registration" (English; updated 2026-08-07). https://www.city.higashihiroshima.lg.jp/en/3/33833.html ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰

2. i-socia Advisors. "Inkan Registration." https://eng.daikou-office.com/reference/inkan-registration/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

3. Nippon.com. "Hanko and Inkan: Japanese Stamps and Personal Seals." https://www.nippon.com/en/features/jg00077/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

4. City of Yokohama. "Seal registration" (English; updated 2025-03-01). https://www.city.yokohama.lg.jp/lang/residents/en/notifications/default20200.html ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

5. Toshima City. "Registration of Personal Seal" (English; updated 2020-09-17). https://www.city.toshima.lg.jp/info/en/personal_seals.html ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

6. Hamamatsu City. "Personal Seals" (English; updated 2022-07-19). https://www.city.hamamatsu.shizuoka.jp/hamaeng/02life/02_5.html ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

7. Shinjuku City (Foreign Language). "Personal Seal Registration Procedures and Certificate" (English). https://www.foreign.city.shinjuku.lg.jp/en/kurashi/inkantoroku ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

8. Kasama City. "Seal Registration (inkan touroku)" (English PDF; file created 2019-05-22, still posted 2026-09-25). https://www.city.kasama.lg.jp/data/doc/1559017259_doc_1_0.pdf ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

9. Ota City. "Registration of personal seal" (English PDF, Non-Japanese Residents Unit; undated, accessed 2026-09-25). https://www.city.ota.tokyo.jp/seikatsu/koseki_j/gaikoku/shomesho/gaikokujininkantou.files/gaikokusekiinnkanneng.pdf ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

10. Selectra Japan. "How to Get and Register Personal Seal (Inkan) as a Foreigner." https://selectra.jp/en/life-in-japan/register-inkan ↩ ↩²

11. Minato City. "Personal Seal (inkan) Registration" (English; undated, accessed 2026-09-25). https://www.city.minato.tokyo.jp/easyjp/en/moving/residentregistration/personalsealregistration.html ↩ ↩²