The advance
of artificial intelligence has just scored a rather bitter precedent for the
entertainment industry in Japan. The Tokyo District Court officially dismissed
the lawsuit filed by renowned voice actor Kenjiro Tsuda against TikTok's
operating company, a landmark case that sought to stem the tide of content that
used his unmistakable tone of voice without his authorization.
The legal
battle began in November 2025, when Tsuda's legal team decided to act after
detecting that an anonymous account had posted at least 188 videos using an
AI-generated voice that almost identically mimicked his grave and distinguished
tone. The account exceeded 210,000 followers and accumulated averages of 1.47
million views per video narrating horror stories and urban legends, which
allowed the creator of the channel to generate income of between 3,300 and
5,000 dollars (USD) per month at the expense of the actor's voice.
The actor's
representatives argued that these videos violated his image rights and violated
Japan's Unfair Competition Law by directly profiting from the commercial value
of someone else's identity. However, the platform's defense maintained that the
account and videos had already been definitively deleted by mid-2026. In view
of this, the court accepted the argument that the lawsuit was devoid of purpose
as there was no longer active material to remove from the servers, dismissing
the case without issuing a substantive judgment on vocal cloning.
This
resolution leaves enormous concern among dubbing professionals, since Japanese
law does not contemplate the explicit protection of the voice as a separate
intellectual property right. Despite the fact that several government bodies
have suggested that vocal imitation for commercial purposes could be sanctioned
under certain circumstances, the lack of clear laws keeps artists in a position
of total vulnerability to generative tools.
About
Kenjiro Tsuda
Kenjiro
Tsuda is one of the
most prominent and influential voice actors and directors in contemporary
Japanese animation. Born on June 11, 1971, Tsuda has earned international
recognition thanks to his deep and highly characteristic voice, giving life to
such iconic characters as Seto Kaiba in Yu-Gi-Oh!, Kento Nanami in Jujutsu
Kaisen, Kishibe in Chainsaw Man and Tatsu in Gokushufudou,
maintaining a constant presence in high-profile productions.
