Often used in lieu of signatures, hanko (personalized seals displaying one's name) are a necessary means of identification to stamp official documents in everything from work to marriage. While these seals display names in Japanese kanji, foreign residents without a kanji name either make a hank of their name in the katakana alphabet, or create an officially registered kanji version of their name.

Official seal design company Sirusi is looking to make the latter option a bit easier and flashier via a new crowdfunded project called OMIYA-HANKO. The service lets you submit your name to be converted into a kanji selected by the company or customized yourself to be used on a hanko seal.

When realized, the process operates by submission of a non-Japanese with intended characters to use, or a request for suitable kanji to match the submitted name. As you can see with the example of "Robert" below, meaning of each character is explained (the very last one after the name simply means "seal") and the hanko can be delivered in three styles--circle, emblem, and traditional for the preferred aesthetic.

OMIYA-HANKO is being marketed as a special souvenir to gift foreign visitors with, but could also be worth using as an official hanko for foreign residents as the recently launched crowdfunding page rewards donations with Japanese style brushes as well.

Those anxious for a personalized hanko now, however, may want to hold themselves over with Pokemon and shiba inu seals, or check out these foreign-friendly personalized typographic hanko.