Anime voice actor Kenjiro Tsuda v TikTok: a Tokyo court rules Wednesday on his AI-cloned voice

Voice actor Kenjiro Tsuda is suing TikTok over videos he says used an AI clone of his voice. A Tokyo court rules on 30 September, and Japan has no law that names voice as a protected right.

Kenjiro Tsuda, the voice actor behind starring roles in Jujutsu Kaisen and Yu-Gi-Oh!, has taken TikTok to court over videos he says were narrated by an AI clone of his voice. The Tokyo District Court rules on Wednesday, 30 September.

The case targets the platform, not the cloner. An anonymous account posted occult and conspiracy videos in a deep voice Tsuda says can only be his; it once had more than 200,000 subscribers, and his complaint puts its monthly revenue above 500,000 yen. The account is gone, so the court will decide whether TikTok was responsible for deleting the posts. TikTok told the court it is a generic male voice and that it only hosts what users post.

Japan has no law that names voice as a protected right. The justice ministry's August guidelines say voice falls under publicity rights, but they are not binding, and this is believed to be the country's first suit defending a person's vocal identity against AI copies.

In practice, if you release work with a cloned or soundalike voice, Wednesday's ruling will show whether a platform in Japan can be held responsible for leaving it up. Get the performer's consent in writing before you publish.

Source: AFP reporting from Tokyo, 27 September 2026.