In a landmark ruling on Wednesday (September 30), a court in Tokyo, Japan, ordered the social media platform TikTok to shut down an account that had cloned and used the voice of a prominent Japanese anime voice actor without authorization. This decision marks a milestone in the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) as it provides a reference for the legal protection of individual voices.
The Tokyo District Court ordered TikTok (international version of Douyin) to close the infringing account. Renowned anime voice actor Kenjiro Tsuda accused this social media account of using AI technology to clone his iconic voice without authorization for commercial purposes, thus violating his voice rights.
Kenjiro Tsuda’s deep and charismatic voice is widely popular in Japan. He has provided voices for characters such as Kento Nanami in the popular anime “Jujutsu Kaisen”.
In the lawsuit, Tsuda claimed that the TikTok account “Nanami”, operated by an anonymous user, used AI to clone his voice and illegally used it in over 180 video clips, including narrating urban legends and supernatural phenomena to attract audiences and make profits. Tsuda requested TikTok to remove the relevant content.
Court documents revealed that the presiding judge, Aya Takahashi, stated, “A person’s voice is a symbol of one’s personality, akin to a person’s portrait.”
This ruling by the Tokyo District Court is significant as it is the first time in Japan’s legal history to acknowledge individual voice rights. This decision is also welcomed by other anime voice actors who are increasingly concerned about their voices being cloned by AI and used on social media platforms.
Judge Takahashi ruled that unauthorized use of Tsuda’s voice to enhance commercial appeal could be considered as “infringing on image rights”.
As of November 2025, the TikTok account had over 200,000 subscribers and generated monthly revenue exceeding 500,000 Japanese yen (approximately $3200).
However, TikTok argued that the videos on this account used voices generated by artificial intelligence that sounded like Tsuda’s voice but were not actually his voice, and these videos did not damage his reputation as a voice actor.
TikTok claimed that it was a “common male voice” and believed it closely resembled Tsuda’s voice, emphasizing that such a view was at best a subjective judgment.
The judge ordered the closure of the account but rejected Tsuda’s request for TikTok to delete all videos using his voice.
Judge Takahashi stated that TikTok was “no longer obligated to delete” the relevant videos since the anonymous user who posted them had already deleted them after the litigation began, and it had been several months since then.