AIBRIEF
A Tokyo court recognized voice actor Kenjiro Tsuda's baritone under publicity rights, applying August Justice Ministry guidance, but denied takedown because the AI clone videos were already deleted.
A Tokyo court recognized anime voice actor Kenjiro Tsuda's voice as protected under Japan's publicity rights on September 30, 2026, applying for the first time an August Justice Ministry expert-panel guideline that had recommended voice protection alongside images. The court dismissed his demand to remove the AI-generated clone from TikTok because the videos had already been deleted. (Japan Times)
The ruling in Tokyo District Court case 令和7(ワ)70635 set a conditional test: voice protection applies if the purpose of using the voice is exclusively to take advantage of its commercial appeal, the Guardian reported, attributing the standard to the presiding judge.
The plaintiff's team alleged the platform generated an intentional imitation of Tsuda's trademark baritone. The platform operator said the voice was learned from a user's friend and was generic, according to the Japan Times. Whether the voice was actually cloned remains disputed.
The takedown was denied on mootness, not the merits, so a live video could still test the same protection. The August 2026 guidelines remain an administrative baseline, not statute. The full judgment PDF was not extractable, and the case-specific reasoning has not been independently verified.