The remaining legal domestic carving industries and markets depend on pre-ban ivory stocks, but illicit international ivory trade continues and may be fostered by growing new informal trading networks. The illegal trade in small cut pieces of ivory, particularly for making signature seals known as hankos in Japan, is of special concern. Three proposals to allow limited single annual shipments of ivory stocks from Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe to Japan are among the many proposals to be considered.
Japan has one of the most advanced domestic ivory trade control systems in the region.
A survey of 100 shops indicated that the system is particularly weak at the retail level for finished products. Due to the voluntary nature of parts of the system, certification seals for ivory offer no guarantees. If illegal worked ivory can make it past Customs, it can be sold undetected. Police and consumers alike can not tell the difference. However, neither was any adequately equipped to deal with the possible infiltration of illicit ivory into its legal domestic markets, particularly ivory for making signature seals.