A Tokyo court has officially recognized that human voices are protected by law, marking a first in Japanese judicial history. The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by renowned voice actor Kenjiro Tsuda against TikTok, following the unauthorized use of an AI-cloned version of his voice.
Tsuda, who has over 30 years of experience in the industry, alleged that an anonymous TikTok account used his signature deep baritone voice for narration in several videos uploaded between late 2023 and July 2024. The account in question had reached over 200,000 followers before being deleted.
The court ruled that using an actor's voice without permission constitutes an infringement of personality rights. While the court upheld Tsuda's claims regarding the violation, it did not grant his request to have the videos removed, as the account had already been deactivated.
TikTok argued during the proceedings that the audio in the videos was merely a generic male voice, disputing the claim that it was an imitation of Tsuda. The case highlights growing concerns among Japanese voice actors regarding the use of their work and likeness to train AI models.
