Need a hanko when purchasing a house?

[ExpatScot]

Hi all,

My wife mentioned that I should probably get a hanko and register it with city hall as we’re hoping to buy a place in the near future. She thinks it’ll be required for some of the paperwork we have to do.

Did anyone else find it necessary when buying a house?

Thanks

[Beaglehound]

An easy one! Your missus is correct on this one, it’s needed.

[Wales4rugbyWC23]

And be prepared to write your name and address many, many times.

[Gareth]

A point about registering a hanko.

My hanko is in katakana. I went to register it at the city office but my name hadn’t officially been registered in katakana. So I had to register the katakana spelling of my name first before I could register the hanko. Just a possible extra step to be aware of.

[beanhead]

And be prepared to write your name and address many, many times.

I still wake up in a cold sweat about that day sometimes! My kanji writing is pretty poor, and they rejected some of my forms as too messy.
Painful experience

[ExpatScot]

Many thanks for the feedback. Something to do next week then. I presume the hanko should replicate the name I have on my gaijin card, middle name and all?

[Beaglehound]

Many thanks for the feedback. Something to do next week then. I presume the hanko should replicate the name I have on my gaijin card, middle name and all?

Since I just have my surname on mine, I don’t think that can be necessary. Sorry don’t remember the actual rules for a registered hanko, but I remember there were options.

[Wales4rugbyWC23]

One more thing about registering the Hanko with the possible exception of Chinese people you can't have your name in Kanji. In Latin letters or Katakana only. When I went to register my hanko many, many years ago. My hanko which had been made by one of the office ladies and which was used for my bank transactions used kanji. The guy at the ward office was very unwilling to register it and I had to show him where I had used it an official document..... Anyway, move on a few decades one of my teachers also had a Kanji hanko and they would not allow her to register it- Three hour discussion at the ward office. She eventually gave up and made a new hanko.

[RetireJapan]

One more thing about registering the Hanko with the possible exception of Chinese people you can't have your name in Kanji. In Latin letters or Katakana only. When I went to register my hanko many, many years ago. My hanko which had been made by one of the office ladies and which was used for my bank transactions used kanji. The guy at the ward office was very unwilling to register it and I had to show him where I had used it an official document..... Anyway, move on a few decades one of my teachers also had a Kanji hanko and they would not allow her to register it- Three hour discussion at the ward office. She eventually gave up and made a new hanko.

Mine is in kanji, using my official kanji alias

This may be a legacy thing though that is no longer possible (it seems to be getting much harder to actually use your alias officially nowadays).

[sutebayashi]

Many thanks for the feedback. Something to do next week then. I presume the hanko should replicate the name I have on my gaijin card, middle name and all?

In my case, my official hanko (only used ever when buying the house etc) is just my first name in English capital letters. It’s unbelievably dull, and I am sure it must be forgeable, but it checked all the boxes required it seems.
You could probably just go with a surname in English too, or your whole name.