Kenjiro Tsuda, one of the leading voice actors of the anime industry in Japan, filed a lawsuit against TikTok on the grounds that his unique baritone voice was copied through artificial intelligence.
The Tokyo District Court will announce its decision on the case on Wednesday.
While artificial intelligence-derived voice and image imitations have increased concern among stage and voice actors around the world, the threat has also shaken the Japanese animation industry, where voice actors are sometimes as respected as the characters they portray.
Jujutsu Kaisen and Yu-Gi-Oh! The lawsuit filed by 55-year-old Tsuda, known for her leading roles in globally renowned productions such as, is considered to be the first legal initiative in Japan aiming to protect the voice identity of an individual against artificial intelligence copies.
Tsuda is demanding the removal from the platform of numerous videos featuring a "deep" and "bright" voice that he says can only belong to him.
According to the court records obtained by the AFP agency, TikTok management argues that the voice in the videos is a "generic male voice" and that the perception of similarity with Tsuda's voice is highly subjective.
Japan Actors Union President and voice actor Yuko Sasaki said that an actor's voice is "the result of years of rigorous training and apprenticeship" to hone talent.
Sasaki stated that they gave full support to Tsuda and said that the court should recognize voice ownership as a fundamental right.
The videos in question were shared through an anonymous account that used the likeness of a character Tsuda voiced in the TV series Jujutsu Kaisen in its profile picture.
In these posts, content related to urban legends, occult phenomena and conspiracy theories were combined with visuals and conversations that appeared to be produced by artificial intelligence.
In the petition, it was noted that the account in question had reached more than 200 thousand followers at one time and may have earned a monthly income of more than 500 thousand yen (approximately 3 thousand 200 dollars).
Tsuda's lawyers emphasized that this account, which lacks original content, owes its popularity entirely to questionable content voiced by the attractive voice of a famous actor.
His legal team argued that this violated Tsuda's publicity rights, which include the right to monitor and commercially profit from elements of his identity.
Even though the relevant account can no longer be viewed on the platform, the court will decide whether TikTok is responsible for the deletion of the posts in question.
In parallel with the lawsuit, Sasaki and his colleagues launched a campaign called "No More" against generative artificial intelligence imitating artists without permission.
Actor Bin Shimada, who took part in the campaign, noted that if a decision in favor of TikTok opens the way for uncontrolled voice cloning on social media, the industry will face the danger of extinction and young actors may lose their hopes.
Similar concerns are also increasing on a global scale. In its assessment published last year, the International Federation of Actors pointed out that copyright and data protection legislation had not been sufficiently updated in most countries to protect artists from artificial intelligence clones.
OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, was also forced to apologize in 2024 after publishing a synthetic voice similar to the voice of movie actress Scarlett Johansson, who refused to work with them.
There is no specific law in Japan that directly protects an individual's voice. However, the Department of Justice last month published non-binding guidance clarifying protections under existing rights.
The Ministry defined the voice as a "symbol of personality" and evaluated it within the scope of publicity rights and the right to prevent unauthorized use of portraits and likenesses.
It is not yet known how this guideline will affect Wednesday's decision.
