Tokyo court rules AI voice cloning without consent violates publicity rights
A Tokyo court has ruled that human voices are legally protected in a landmark AI case. Anime voice actor Kenjiro Tsuda won a partial victory after claiming his voice had been cloned by an anonymous TikTok account to narrate videos without permission. The court sided with Tsuda, ruling that using someone's voice without consent infringes on their publicity rights, marking a first in Japan. However, his request to remove the videos was dismissed because the account had already been deleted.
Tsuda is a prominent performer with more than 30 years in anime, film and gaming, best known for voicing Seto Kaiba in Yu-Gi-Oh!. He identified his distinctive "lustrous" baritone as the marker of the AI cloning, and his legal team noted the anonymous account reached 200,000 followers at its peak. TikTok argued a "generic male voice" was used instead, disputing the similarity to Tsuda's voice. The ruling reflects growing concerns among anime creators about AI protection, even as Japan's government maintains a pro-AI national strategy, though it did ask OpenAI to exclude anime and manga content from Sora 2 training.
- Japanese court establishes legal protection for human voices against AI cloning
- Anime actor Kenjiro Tsuda won landmark case after voice used by TikTok account
- Growing concern among creators as AI technology advances despite Japan's pro-AI stance
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Artificial intelligence was used to create a copy of a man's voice without his permission, which was then used to narrate videos posted on TikTok. Kenjiro Tsuda, a prominent anime voice actor, discovered his distinctive voice had been cloned by an anonymous account and used to narrate content without his consent. A court in Tokyo has now ruled that this infringes his legal rights over his own voice, marking the first time a Japanese court has recognised such protection against AI voice cloning.
Tsuda has spent more than thirty years working in anime, film and video games, and is well known for voicing major characters in popular series. The TikTok account using his voice grew to 200,000 followers before being deleted, demonstrating how AI voice technology can be exploited at scale. This case matters because it establishes a legal precedent protecting voice actors and other public figures in Japan from unauthorised AI voice cloning.
Japan's government has generally promoted AI development as part of its technology strategy, yet this ruling reveals tension between that approach and concerns from entertainment creators. Although the court sided with Tsuda, his request to have the videos removed was dismissed because the account had already been deleted, illustrating the practical limitations of legal protection in this area.
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Originally published by Engadget as “Japanese court rules human voices are protected in landmark AI case”.