Masao Sekine, a 77-year-old doctor in Fukushima Prefecture, keeps his personal seals locked up in a safe-deposit box at the bank.
"I don't take them out," Sekine said, refusing to say how many he has. "It's just too dangerous."
Japanese use seals, or "hanko," carved on tiny blocks of ivory or wood, in lieu of signing their names on official documents. Since the eighth century, people have put their seals on loans, divorce applications and government decrees.