Can you really prove that you are you? Especially in the environment where red tape dominates? This Kafkaesque proposition is getting rather serious in this time of rampant electronic identity thievery.

Sure, in quite a few countries, carte d'identite works fine for this purpose. Where no nationwide identity card system exists, cocktail of papers are needed, like America. Socical security number, driver's license, birth certificate and the likes.

No national identity card or birth certificate exists in Japan. Therefore, the one and only proof of one's identity remains hanko, his personal seal.

This hanko business, of course, had been introduced from ancient China, first at the time of Han dynasty, and is still flourishing strongly. Only Japan and South Korea keep this hanko system presently. The very originator, China, has abandoned it long, long time ago.

In the world of Japanese red tape, any kind of official/semi-official/private documentation demands signature and hanko at the bottom. Since anybody can forge signature quite easily, it does not have any significance actually. Only thing that really matters is, of course, hanko.

Every Japanese person has to possess several different hankos, starting from the impressive-looking registered seal of stone or ivory, down to everyday plastic hanko bought at 100-yen shop.

The seams of this hanko identification system are in danger of coming apart, recently. Yes, digital fraud is shaking the system from the bottom.

Door-picking artist quietly breaks and enters victim's house and nicks bank account passbook. The passbook, especially old ones, usually carries the seal image on the first page. The joker scans this image and prints it on the withdrawal slip with color printer. The bank teller accepts this slip and passbook as authentic, and victim's account will be emptied. Sometimes, the scanned digital image goes to hanko carving machine, too.

The real cause of trouble: It's the stamped image of one's hanko that is stored in the databases of goverment offices, banks and other public institutions. Not the particulars of physical hanko itself! And any image can be flawlessly reproduced in this era of digital processing. QED.

Mitsubishi Pencil's Dial Bank Hanko Fringe is made of two concentric circles. Each circle can be turned separately by its own dial. Altogether, 64 patterns are formed.

Well, somebody is trying to prop up this basically hopeless hanko system. Mitsubishi Pencil Co. of Tokyo has released a hanko with incorporated security function, Dial Bank Hanko.

This stainless steel hanko has two cylindrical dials in its shaft, yes, not unlike the bicycle number lock. Each dial has eight positions. Altogether, there are 64 combinations. Each combination forms its own image pattern on the circular fringe part of hanko. It means a single hanko can show 64 different images, by the flick of two dials.

What, your Dial Bank Hanko and passbook vanished from your bedside table? No sweat. Burglar can't possibly hit the right combination on his first try at the bank teller. Eh, the chance is only one in 64 anyway. Surely the teller will push the hidden alarm button immediately.

My, you didn't randomize the dials after you used it at your bank the last time? Ah well, in that case, God is great.

Central part, the name, can't be changed. Only outer fringe patterns rotate.

Stamped on a withdrawal slip. Ready to empty account.

Mitsubishi Pencil recommends Dial Bank Hanko only for bank use. Some local government outright refuses to register this metal hanko as one's personal seal.

Dial Bank Hanko is strictly made-to-order. It takes around 10 days from order to delivery. Price? Very serious 21,000 yen (US$182).

 

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