So yes, I’m being a little facetious here. It’s so much more than a stick. It’s a stamp! (Basically.) But it looks really cool!

Right?! And they only cost roughly $20 US.

判子・印鑑 (hanko/inkan) are made for people as a way to certify your identity and approval for many things, not limited to the creation of a bank account, starting up gas and electric for your house, signing up for mobile phone service, and any number of financial obligations it seems. You would probably need it for a house or an apartment(?), but in the case of municipal JETs it seems that certain residences are furnished by the establishment for those who work in the area temporarily. I think this has a lot to do with the fact that there seems to be what I’ll call the yearly lottery in April, at which time teachers are moved about the prefecture to other schools en masse.

I also personally have to stamp an attendance sheet every day in the teachers’ room when I report to work, so it’s possibly common to use the inkan in regard to employment, especially as civil servants (which is stressed to us that we are!).

As to their real official weight, I can’t really comment. Apparently people can take your inkan and stamp for you, which seems to somewhat defeat the purpose or the ceremony of it all. On the other hand, you could easily argue the same thing about the validity and ceremony of signatures in terms of legal and financial obligation. All in all they do the same thing: look cool. :)

I hope to discover even more uses for the lovely inkan, but you may have to wait for something a bit more detailed (the backlog of posts is lengthy!).