In Japan, people do not sign; They use stamps, called Han or Hanko.
You will need your own Hanko if you live in Japan... the Hanko stamp is required especially for official documents.
Hanko FAQ
Q: How long would the delivery take?
Deliverly is usually 2 ~ 3 weeks. If you spend extra, we can instruct the people in Japan to put it in an express mail, but since it's coming from Japan, it would still take about a week.
Q: Will it be my first name or my last name? Or will it be both?
Hanko is almost always with one's last name. There is a kind of hanko that uses both first name and last name, but most people in Japan do not use it unless the occasion is as serious as purchasing a house. An average Japanese person either does not have this type of hanko or uses it once or twice in life time.
Q: How will my name be translated into Kanji? Is it possible to translate non-Japanese names into Kanji?
There are about 5,000 Kanji characters (Japanese people use about 3,000), and although there aren't Kanji characters that can exactly represent your name, there are always some characters of which pronunciations are close enough to do that. We pick characters that can phonetically represent the names. Since there are always several ways to pronounce a Kanji character, even people in Japan may not immediately know how your name is pronounced (depending on how close the pronunciation of Kanji is to the real pronunciation). So, when they see your hanko, they may not immediately recognize it with your name, but if you tell your name, they will say, "Oh yes! That's a clever translation!"
There is another approach you might want to consider. Some English name have meanings. For example, consider a name like Blackwood. For a name like this, we can try a different approach, which is to pick characters that mean black and wood. With this approach, people in Japan cannot know how your name is pronounced, but they will know what it means instead. Some people (whose names mean something good) prefer this approach.
Q: I'm a Martial Artist Sensei. I want to put my title with my name on my hanko.
As a general rule, putting one's title on a hanko is a bad idea. In America, titles, such as PhD or Sensei or whatever, are something people proudly tell other people (Sure, it's a sign of accomplishment; why shouldn't you be proud of it?). However in Japan, if you are advertising that you are a PhD or Sensei or anything, it is taken as a sign of insecurity (Since you are not a Japanese person, people in Japan would take it as a sign of cultural ignorance). Confident and accomplished people, they believe, do not need to tell others that they are confident and accomplished. Other people will judge that.
Q: I'm going to Japan. Can I use my hanko on legal documents there.
Yes and No. You can use it in all situations in which your signature is required, such as receiving a certified letter or even when you are buying a vehicle. But you may not be able to use your hanko in situations that are much more formal that involve complex legality, such as purchasing a real estate, for example. To use your hanko in a situation like that, you need to register your hanko with the government.
Q: Can a man and a woman use the same Hanko?
Yes. Some Kanji characters have masculine meanings, and some have feminine meanings. So, if we know the gender of the user of a hanko, we will choose the characters accordingly. But there are also many characters of which meanings are neutral.
Q: Which font should I choose for my hanko?
Koin-tai is the most common font. 99% of people in Japan use this font. Organizations tend to use other fonts. But they are very difficult to read even for people in Japan. So, if you would like to make your hanko readable, choose Koin-tai.
Five different kinds of Hanko materials are available: Tsuge, Kuro Suigyu, Oranda Suigyu, Gomu In.
