Japan court rules voice is protected as publicity right in AI cloning case - Nikkei Asia

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- A Japanese court ruled Wednesday that voices are protected as a publicity right, similar to portrait rights, in the first such ruling in the country.

The Tokyo District Court, however, dismissed the demand by the plaintiff, voice actor Kenjiro Tsuda, for the operator of TikTok to take down videos narrated using artificial intelligence with a voice that he claimed was similar to his own. Tsuda is best known for voicing the character Kento Nanami in the anime "Jujutsu Kaisen."

Japan does not currently have laws that clearly stipulate voice rights, but the Justice Ministry has recently laid out guidelines stating that uploading videos to social media that use voices similar to those of real people and generating revenue from them may constitute a rights violation.