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I wonder if the Hanko has something to do with it as well. A hanko is a small personal seal that you use to sign documents, you can't hanko an email and althoug

by ehnto 5y ago

I wonder if the Hanko has something to do with it as well. A hanko is a small personal seal that you use to sign documents, you can't hanko an email and although you could print the email up, it's not quite the same experience and that physicality is not implicit like it is in the fax process. E-signatures and the like haven't taken off there, and having to go to various institutions to hanko the paperwork in the flesh is still part of a lot of processes. At the very least, the hanko is another example of holding on to old processes for reasons other than efficiency and effectiveness.

gfxgirl 5y ago
FWIW the government announced they are trying to ween Japan off the hanko. It became abundantly clear during lockdown, that requiring people to go to various government agencies to get official stamped documents to do work, sign contracts, etc, and to have to pass documents around that require hanko is something that has to be changed if Japan wants to head into the future.
- ne0flex 5y ago
  I work for one of the big Japanese banks in the US. Up until covid, whenever we had to get documents approved by Tokyo, we had to get it stamped, then overnight the physical paper to Japan for management to review and stamp it. Depending on the situation/document, they'd overnight the paper back to the US. Only after covid did the bank start implementing electronic signatures.
  - llampx 5y ago
    It is incredible how wasteful the corporate and bureaucratic world is, all the while individual consumers are exhorted to give up random things in the name of doing good for the environment. "Carbon footprint" my @ss.
presentation 5y ago
DocuSign actually has a Hanko option with a Hanko design widget to customize it nowadays :)
jakecopp 5y ago
A great explanation of Hanko is this podcast episode by 99% Invisible: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/hanko/ https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/hanko/
1_player 5y ago
What is interesting is that I've never heard of hanko until today. It seems like it's usage is widespread, everybody carries one in case they need to sign something official. It's surprising how I never heard of or seen these seals ever.

by ehnto 5y ago

gfxgirl 5y ago

FWIW the government announced they are trying to ween Japan off the hanko. It became abundantly clear during lockdown, that requiring people to go to various government agencies to get official stamped documents to do work, sign contracts, etc, and to have to pass documents around that require hanko is something that has to be changed if Japan wants to head into the future.

ne0flex 5y ago
I work for one of the big Japanese banks in the US. Up until covid, whenever we had to get documents approved by Tokyo, we had to get it stamped, then overnight the physical paper to Japan for management to review and stamp it. Depending on the situation/document, they'd overnight the paper back to the US. Only after covid did the bank start implementing electronic signatures.
- llampx 5y ago
  It is incredible how wasteful the corporate and bureaucratic world is, all the while individual consumers are exhorted to give up random things in the name of doing good for the environment. "Carbon footprint" my @ss.

presentation 5y ago

DocuSign actually has a Hanko option with a Hanko design widget to customize it nowadays :)

jakecopp 5y ago

A great explanation of Hanko is this podcast episode by 99% Invisible: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/hanko/ https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/hanko/

1_player 5y ago

What is interesting is that I've never heard of hanko until today. It seems like it's usage is widespread, everybody carries one in case they need to sign something official. It's surprising how I never heard of or seen these seals ever.