Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Taro Kono catalogued almost 15,000 occasions when the only way to satisfy Japan’s fastidious bureaucracy was ...

Japanese regularly validate day-to-day documents, as well as official forms, with hanko, personal seals made from wood, plastic, and other materials. These stamps, which carry the same weight as ...

Japan has a tendency for keeping things that are, as some might say, from a different era. One look at the typical office and you’ll find mountains of paperwork sitting atop of a living fossil; the ...

TOKYO -- SMBC Nikko Securities, a top Japanese brokerage house, will allow clients to open an account without the need to provide hanko seals on their contracts at all its branches starting this month ...

Hanko seals made headlines like never before in recent months, as administrative reform minister Taro Kono made it his priority to do away with the traditional stamps, used to approve official ...

The ink’s still drying, but the shrinking “hanko” seal industry may have found an unlikely savior amid Japan's push to go paperless: international tourists. In early May, Rachel Grey and Danielle ...

TOKYO: For centuries, hanko or handcrafted name seals have been an integral part of Japan’s culture. Using hanko as a stamp of authenticity became a common practice in Japan a few centuries ago during ...

We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Japanese politics & policy news every morning. Taro Kono catalogued almost 15,000 occasions when the only way to satisfy Japan’s ...