Photo/Illutration Taro Kono, minister in charge of administrative reform, says affixing a seal on official documents can be abolished in most cases at a news conference on Oct. 16. (Junya Sakamoto)

Cabinet minister Taro Kono deleted a controversial tweet to promote the government’s red-tape reduction efforts after it rankled the Yamanashi Prefecture governor, who said it filled him with “disgust.”

Kono posted a photo on Twitter on Oct. 29 that showed him sitting with Takuya Hirai, state minister in charge of digital transformation, alongside an image of a “hanko” seal and a piece of paper showing what the stamp imprint looks like.

“Abolish affixing a seal,” it reads.

Kono said in the tweet the hanko was a gift from Hirai.

As the minister in charge of administrative reform, Kono is spearheading the central government’s efforts to all but abolish the nation’s longstanding practice of affixing a hanko seal on official documents.

But the gesture raised the ire of Yamanashi Governor Kotaro Nagasaki, whose prefecture is the largest producer of seals in Japan--a manufacturing tradition that dates back centuries there. 

“I was so appalled that I was speechless,” Nagasaki tweeted Nov. 2 in response to Kono’s tweet. “I am just filled with a feeling of disgust.”

He said Kono’s act “demonstrates that he does not pay respects to the sincere wishes of people working in the seal industry and cannot imagine their sense of alarm.”

Nagasaki’s comments came after he lobbied heavyweights from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party to stop using a slogan calling for abolishing the practice that people could misinterpret as meaning that hanko seals themselves are worthless.

He said his prefecture, too, is grappling with the digitization of administrative documents.

Kono said at a Nov. 4 news conference that the post in question has already been deleted because it “annoyed some people.”

“I thought I could use a seal to send a message and wondered what would be the most powerful message,” he said. “Hirai had a seal manufactured that stated stamping a seal should be abolished.”

Kono said while he intends to promote administrative procedures without a seal, he will also endeavor to keep the hanko tradition alive.

“I am determined to make a proposal that can help pass down a culture surrounding hanko,” he said.

Nagasaki replied on Nov. 5 that Kono should translate his vow to help the seal industry into concrete actions by putting in place a counterbalancing policy measure.

Hirai said at a Nov. 4 news conference he did not intend for the stamp to offend people and regrets that it sparked anger.

(This story was written by Junya Sakamoto and Keishi Nishimura.)

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