Hanko Generator — Japanese Seal Stamp

A hanko, also called inkan (印鑑), is a personal seal used in Japan in place of a handwritten signature. Carved into a small cylindrical stamp and pressed into red cinnabar ink (shuniku), the impression bears the holder’s name in stylized Japanese characters and serves as legal proof of identity on documents like contracts, bank forms, and government paperwork.

Yes. Despite the government’s 2020-onward push to reduce paper bureaucracy, hanko remain in everyday use for opening bank accounts, signing apartment leases, registering a car, and most major contracts. Most adults in Japan own at least two hanko — a casual mitome-in for parcels and internal paperwork, and a registered jitsu-in for legally binding documents.

Yes. Long-term residents in Japan typically order a personal hanko within the first few weeks of arriving — banks and city offices expect one. Foreign names are usually rendered in katakana, which is the standard Japanese script for non-Japanese names. A short surname of two to four katakana characters is the most common choice. Engravers in Japan are very used to producing hanko with foreign names.

Convert your name to katakana first, then choose two to four characters for the seal — typically the first two to four kana of your surname. Long names are abbreviated because circular seals quickly become unreadable past four characters. This generator handles the English-to-katakana step automatically and lets you trim or override the kana before rendering the seal.

Mitome-in (認印) is a casual seal for daily paperwork — package deliveries, internal company forms, school documents. Jitsu-in (実印) is the registered personal seal, registered with the city office (inkan touroku) and used only for legally binding contracts like real estate deeds. Ginko-in (銀行印) is a separate seal registered with a bank and used for financial transactions. Most adults own all three.

For any legal use in Japan, you need a physically engraved hanko from a stamp shop or online engraver. Printed or digitally generated images of seals are not accepted by banks, city offices, or notaries because they cannot be uniquely registered. This generator is a design preview only — it’s perfect for previewing what your name will look like before you order, for digital signatures in personal projects, and for sharing online, but it cannot replace a real engraved seal.

Traditional hanko use one of two seal-script fonts: tensho (篆書, the ancient seal script with stylized angular strokes that you see on bank seals) or kaisho (楷書, the standard block script that is more readable). High-end jitsu-in often use tensho for forgery resistance because the script is intentionally hard to imitate. This online generator uses a Japanese serif font — the closest web-safe approximation. The shape and arrangement are authentic; the exact stroke style is stylized.

No. The image generated by this tool is for design preview, social sharing, and digital decoration only. A legally valid hanko in Japan must be physically engraved into a stamp body and, for jitsu-in, registered with your local city office (市役所). Use this tool to preview your name in seal form before commissioning a real one, or to share a stylized version of your name online.