Summary
Tokyo District Court rejected voice actor Kenjiro Tsuda’s request that TikTok remove videos using an alleged AI imitation of his voice because the account and videos had already been deleted. However, Oricon reports that the judgment recognized voice as potentially protected by publicity rights, which the Japan Actors Union called a major achievement. The union said 188 videos posted from July 2024 to September 2025 used the imitation and monetized views. Its JVOXPRO tests found an average similarity score of 0.814 across samples, although the union acknowledged identification can still be contested. The group now wants clearer legislation, preservation of uploader information and stronger platform responsibility.
Hana’s perspective
I see the important result as narrower than a sweeping victory. The deletion claim failed because the material had already disappeared, yet the court’s recognition that a voice can carry publicity value gives performers a legal foothold beyond conventional copyright. For animation and dubbing, that matters because a recognizable performance is both identity and labor. The remaining weakness is enforcement: rights mean little if anonymous uploaders vanish and platforms do not preserve information after receiving notice.
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