Personal Seal (Inkan) Registration and Personal Seal Certificates

In Japan, personal seals are often used instead of signatures.
Whether you should use one over the other often depends on the situation.

Contact
Citizens Affairs Division (Gifu City Hall, 1F／Tel. 058-214-6175)

Type

• Unofficial seals
  You can use these when receiving packages or showing that you have read a document.
  They are often rubber or plastic.
  (there are cases were rubber seals or seals with ink inside them cannot be used)
• Bank seals
  This is the seal you register to your bank account when opening it.
  If this seal is incorrect, you will be unable to perform certain actions with your account such as withdrawing money from it.
• Official seals
  These are any seal that you have registered with your city, town, or village.
  It is used when you register or transfer ownership of automobiles, land, etc.

Registering a personal seal (to be used as an official seal)

Persons eligible

• Those with a residence certificate registered with Gifu City
• At least 15 years old

Things to bring

• The seal you would like to register
• Residence card

Registered by

Applicant

Fee

¥300

Certificate

You will be issued a personal seal registration card (Gifu Citizen card) upon successfully meeting all requirements

Other

• You can only register one seal per person
• You will need a personal seal registration card in order to be issued a personal seal registration certificate

Personal seal registration certificates

This certificate can be attached to documents that you used your official seal with to certify that your seal is registered with the city, ward, town, or village that you live in.

• Things to bring
  Personal seal registration card (Gifu Citizen Card)
• Fee
  ¥300/copy
• Note
  You do not need to bring a personal seal with you to get this certificate

Other

Personal seal registration certificates will be issued by the government office of the municipality that you have your residence certificate registered with.
Because of that, if you register a residence certificate with a different muncipality, you will need to apply for a new personal seal registration certificate with that municipality. 

When moving to Gifu City

• Any seal registrations you have will become invalid.
• If you would like to register a seal, please complete the process to do so with Gifu City.

When moving out of Gifu City

Please return your personal seal registration certificate to city hall.