Tokyo Court Rules AI-Cloned Voice of Anime Actor Violates Publicity Rights

A Tokyo court ruled on October 1, 2026 that using an actor's voice cloned with AI without permission constitutes an infringement of publicity rights, in a landmark case believed to be the first of its kind in Japan.

The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by Kenjiro Tsuda, a prominent anime voice actor with a career spanning more than 30 years, known for roles such as Seto Kaiba in Yu-Gi-Oh!. Tsuda had accused an anonymous TikTok account of using AI-generated narration cloned from his voice in videos posted between July 2024 and the second half of 2025.

The court sided with Tsuda on the core claim, but dismissed his request to order TikTok to remove the videos, as the account in question had already been deleted.

Tsuda's legal team argued that the AI-generated narration was identifiable by its deep and distinctive tone. The account, which reportedly peaked at over 200,000 followers, gained popularity partly due to the novelty of its content being read by a recognizable star, according to the actor's representatives. TikTok argued in court that the narration featured a generic male voice whose similarity to Tsuda's was debatable, citing court records.

The case highlights growing concerns among Japan's voice acting community about the protection of creators whose voices and likenesses may be used by AI technology. In a related development last year, the Japanese government asked OpenAI to ensure that anime and manga content considered "irreplaceable treasures" was not used to train its Sora 2 generator in ways that violate copyright.