February 16, 2023 Certification of Time-stamping Services

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) today certified the time-stamping services of Seiko Solutions Inc. (headed by SEKINE Jun, President), Mitsubishi Electric Information Network Corp. (headed by UEDA Masaaki, President), and Amano Corp. (headed by TSUDA Hiroyuki, President and Representative Director) as certified time-stamping services, in response to applications from those companies for such certification.

1. Background

The Rules Concerning the Certification of Time-stamping Services (MIC Notice No. 146 of 2021; hereinafter referred to as the "MIC Notice") state that the Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications may certify time-stamping services involving the issue of time-stamps in a reliable and stable manner as certified time-stamping services.
Following applications from Seiko Solutions, Mitsubishi Electric Information Network, and Amano for certification of their time-stamping services under the provisions of Article 3, Paragraph 1 of the MIC Notice, the Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications has certified their services in accordance with those provisions, as the services are deemed to conform to the requirements for certification.
This marks the first time that time-stamping services have been certified.
The certification will be announced in a separate public notice, in accordance with the provisions of Article 3, Paragraph 4 of the MIC Notice.

Recently certified time-stamping services

Applicant: Seiko Solutions Inc.
Name of time-stamping service: Seiko Timestamp Service
Certification date: February 16, 2023

Applicant: Mitsubishi Electric Information Network Corp. Name of time-stamping service: MIND Timestamp Service Certification date: February 16, 2023

Applicant: Amano Corp.
Name of time-stamping service: Amano Time-stamp Service 3161
Certification date: February 16, 2023

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  Time-stamps are a technology used to prove that a piece of electronic data existed at a certain time and has not been altered since then. Comparison of the information given in the time-stamp and the information obtained from the original electronic data makes it possible to confirm reliably and easily that the electronic data has not been altered since the time specified on the time-stamp. For further details, please refer to the MIC web page on time-stamps.

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  The published materials are in Japanese only.