Tokyo District Court issues first ruling on voice ID legal protection

According to the Kyodo agency, Tokyo District Court decided the case regarding famous voice actor Tsuda Kenjiro's request to remove videos prepared with artificial intelligence-generated voice, which he claimed were similar to his own, from the social media platform TikTok.

In the decision, it was ruled that the voice could be protected within the scope of the person's identity elements that have commercial value, and added: "The human voice, like a portrait, symbolizes the character of the person." The expression was used.

On the other hand, the decision stated that Tsuda's request to remove the videos was rejected on the grounds that the contents were deleted after the lawsuit was filed.

The decision in question was the first court decision in the country that ruled that people's voices were subject to legal protection in this context.

In the case file filed in November 2025, it was stated that an unidentified TikTok user shared 188 videos dubbed with a voice similar to Tsuda's voice between July 2024 and September 2025.

It was stated that in the analysis, strong similarities were detected between Tsuda's voice and the voice produced by artificial intelligence, and the plaintiff argued that this misled the audience.

It was claimed that the person who shared the videos earned an income of 500 thousand to 750 thousand yen (approximately 3 thousand 200 to 4 thousand 800 dollars) per month by using Tsuda's voice features.

While TikTok claimed that a "standard male voice" was used in the videos and that it would not be confused with Tsuda's voice, the person who shared the videos claimed that the artificial intelligence was trained using his friend's voice.

Tsuda is known for voicing the character "Nanami Kento" in the anime production "Jujutsu Kaisen".