A few months ago, I wrote about the declining use of seals in Japan, and Adamu commented that Japan ought to abolish seals altogether. Well, South Korea is almost there:
At present, 32.89 million Korean nationals, or 66.5 percent of the entire population, have personal seals registered with the authorities, while a total of 48.46 seal certificates were issued last year, incurring enormous social and economic costs, according to government data. Hundreds of personal seal forgery cases are also reported every year.
The Ministry of Public Administration and Security said the government plans to scrap 60 percent of official demands for the personal seal registration certificates this year, with the remaining 40 percent set to be gradually abolished over the next five years.
A separate Joong Ang Daily article explains that this policy was the work of a “Presidential Council on National Competitiveness,” and that Korea’s use of seals only dates back to its days as a Japanese colony (its seal registration law was instituted in 1914).
Woo hoo! Maybe once people see the world won’t end if people start signing for things, Japan will follow suit. I am against seals for purely selfish reasons: I am terrible at remembering to carry my seal around.
Me too.This is the reason why Japan still imports ivory from Zimbabwe and South Africa.No need to kill elephant bulls for damn seals.
I am rather fond of seals.
My problem with signatures is that I have never had a consistent one, even though I have tried. It is always different and even I can not recognize my own signature. When I lived in the US this has caused many problems for verification. I don’t have those problems with seals in Japan.
But then I don’t see Japan radically changing anytime soon. It’s always been conservative to the extreme with glacially slow change.
I mistook the meaning of the title and had to read the post and comments twice.
(I recommend that all your readers do the same.)
I didn’t know you could get fractional certificates. Would that be a single 0.46 certificate, or 46 separate hundredths of a certificate? (This baffling number was in the original article; I assume they mean 48.46 million.)
“that Korea’s use of seals only dates back to its days as a Japanese colony (its seal registration law was instituted in 1914).”
That’s not exactly true. I mean yes, the current law dates back to 1914, but as a part of the wider written Chinese language culture of East Asia (also including Japan, Vietnam, etc.) seals were used for all official and identification purposes in Korea since antiquity. It’s only the modern legal system of 印鑑證明書 that dates to the Japanese period.
“I mistook the meaning of the title”
Ditto. I was expecting to see a link to an article about a bunch of Korean guys chasing away seals with clubs.
Awesome. I’ve found a new way to grow interest in wonky legal articles.
Yeah, only blog on legal topics that involve homonyms or puns.
Or you could just make clever mistakes –
“Certification of therapists in Japan”
“Certification of the rapists in Japan”
I like seals for the same reason as Mumei – I very nearly got a traveller’s cheque refused in London as the signature I signed on the spot (on a tiny narrow bench) was not close enough to the first signature. Ended up having to show my passport to the strategically-shaved ape on duty. Also it was useful when I was on the Mombusho back when you signed for a whole year at a time, and the totally pro-forma Research Assistant thing in my PhD course: bang bang bang. But it should be optional: too many times I have gone to the shiyakusho or something and filled in a form and had to go back as I forgot the damn seal.
Mine, by the way, is hand-carved – I carved it myself from one of those soft stone blanks you can buy. Not an easy task.
“Also it was useful when I was on the Mombusho back when you signed for a whole year at a time,”
Damn, they used to let you do that?? When did it change? They’re very strict about signing every month now- kind of annoying for summer vacation.
I’ve never gotten an official seal. I have unofficial ones made in both Taiwan and Japan, but for legal purposes I just use a signature.
“Damn, they used to let you do that??”
They changed for either the second year of my MA or perhaps the first year of it (I had it for BA and MA: they only allow one extension though, so I needed another one for the PhD). That’s going back a while now though. And you are right – it was damn useful for skivving off in the holidays, but I think they had too many people just take off. But then you are supposed to get your prof’s permission anyway – all the schols I had required that, come to think of it. The JSPS was the most anal – you had to write for permission for anything more than two weeks, and only one trip ‘home’ a year.
“The JSPS was the most anal”
Boo effing hoo. How much were they giving you a month again?
The MEXT scholarship is down to 158,000 a month now. It was 170,000 when I came last year, and 180,000 maybe 2-3 years ago when the idea of applying first crossed my mind. I hope I can get some better funding for whatever I do after this.
I got 185,000 when I was on it.
You will get better funding for your PhD, but you will probably have to teach so that will eat into whatever time you have for translation and side jobs. Also depending on where you go in the US, rent will probably be a killer so don’t be surprised if you end up worse off!
“Boo effing hoo. How much were they giving you a month again?”
Hey, I wasn’t complaining (much), just noting how anal they were. And for that kind of money, I would have applied for permission to take a shit if they demanded it.
Damn, the Mombusho is low these days. I also got 185,000, which was nice. Still, a single student can live on that easily, especially out of the big cities. Hell, I funded my first trip to Europe on the lowly 134,000 of the BA schol.
“Also depending on where you go in the US, rent will probably be a killer so don’t be surprised if you end up worse off!”
Very true. I could easily be getting 50%+ more money, but having to spend more than double. Hopefully I can work things out alright.
Good/great university = rich students = high rents.
I wonder how widely known it is that students at top 20 universities in the US usually have higher starting salaries than the profs who work there?
But hey, nice perks.