Japanese voice actor Kenjiro Tsuda is suing TikTok over videos that he says used an artificial intelligence clone of his distinctive voice, placing a performer’s vocal identity at the center of a legal dispute. The Tokyo District Court is due to rule on Wednesday on whether TikTok was responsible for removing the posts, according to Sg News Yahoo.
The case is believed to be Japan’s first lawsuit seeking to protect an individual voice from AI-generated copies. It comes as performers worldwide challenge the use of synthetic voices, while Japan’s animation industry debates whether existing publicity rights can protect actors whose voices are imitated without permission.
Why Tsuda says the videos used his identity
Tsuda, 55, is known for prominent roles in franchises including Jujutsu Kaisen and Yu-Gi-Oh!. He has asked TikTok to remove videos narrated by what he describes as a “deep” and “lustrous” voice that could only be his.
The videos appeared on an anonymous account whose profile image resembled a character from Jujutsu Kaisen voiced by Tsuda. The account paired images with speech that appeared to be AI-generated and focused on urban legends, occult phenomena and conspiracy theories.
According to Tsuda’s legal team, the account once had more than 200,000 subscribers and generated more than 500,000 yen, or about $3,200, in monthly revenue. His lawyers argue that the posts attracted attention because controversial material was delivered in the recognizable voice of a popular actor, rather than because the account offered original content.
Tsuda’s claim relies on publicity rights: the ability to control and profit from commercial uses of aspects of a person’s identity. His attorneys say that using a synthetic version of his voice infringed those rights.
TikTok disputes the voice and its responsibility
TikTok has argued that the voice was a “generic male voice” and that any resemblance to Tsuda was subjective, according to court records. The platform also challenged Tsuda’s “national fame” and rejected the claim that the account improperly traded on a well-known personal brand under Japan’s unfair competition laws.
The account is no longer viewable on TikTok. The court’s immediate question is therefore not simply whether the voice sounds like Tsuda, but whether the platform was responsible for deleting the videos.
TikTok told the court that it provided a forum where users could publish creative content within the scope of free speech. That position places the dispute at the intersection of platform responsibility, unauthorized identity use and the legal status of AI-generated speech.
Japan’s rules leave an important question open
Japan has no law that explicitly enshrines a person’s voice as a standalone right. However, the justice ministry published legally non-binding guidelines last month stating that a voice, as “the symbol of one’s personality,” can fall under publicity rights and protections against unauthorized use of a person’s portrait and likeness.
It remains unclear how much those guidelines will influence the court’s decision. Tatsuhiro Ueno, a Waseda University professor of intellectual property studies, said it was “very unlikely” that Tsuda’s voice would be denied publicity rights altogether. He also said Tsuda’s role as a stoic elite sorcerer in Jujutsu Kaisen made his voice highly recognizable in Europe, giving the ruling potential international significance.
The case could help clarify whether a performer must prove that an imitation is an exact copy, or whether a highly recognizable vocal identity can be protected even when a platform calls the sound generic. The ruling may also affect how performers and technology companies interpret Japan’s existing rights while lawmakers consider how to address AI imitation.
Voice actors organize against unauthorized cloning
The lawsuit has prompted broader action within Japan’s voice-acting community. Yuko Sasaki, executive director of the Japan Actors Union and a fellow voice actor, said performers spend years and substantial resources developing their voices through training and apprenticeship. The union supports Tsuda’s case and wants courts to recognize ownership of a voice as a fundamental right.
Sasaki and other Japanese voice actors have launched a campaign called “No More,” opposing generative AI systems that mimic performers without permission. Actor Bin Shimada warned that a court victory for TikTok could lead to “unbridled” voice cloning on social media and cause younger actors to lose hope.
The International Federation of Actors has said that copyright and data-protection laws in many countries have not kept pace with AI clones. In 2024, OpenAI apologized to Scarlett Johansson over a synthetic voice that sounded like her after she declined to work on the company’s project.
Veteran voice actor Michihiro Ikemizu, 83, expressed support for Tsuda while arguing that AI cannot replace the human performance itself. Actors must continuously feel and adapt while playing a role, he said—a quality he described as their “only weapon.”