Goku's voice actor calls unauthorized AI clones theft as her union writes consent rules

Masako Nozawa called an AI copy of her voice theft, but her target is use without permission. Her union's new consent guidelines are voluntary and bind only those who sign up.

Masako Nozawa has voiced Goku since 1986, and she turns 90 on Sunday. When NHK showed her a video that used an AI copy of her voice, she did not hedge. "This is not my voice," she said, in our translation of the Japanese. "I can't forgive using it without asking. It's the same as a thief." Reports say the clip was an AI Goku singing a song.

A lot of the English coverage read that as the most famous voice in anime turning against AI. Her own words point somewhere narrower. In a video message to her union's press conference on Oct 15, she said she was excited that the world she dreamed of as a child is becoming real, and disappointed that voices are being used without consent. Her agency, Aoni Production, licensed an AI version of her voice to the startup CoeFont in 2024, for navigation and assistant uses, with acting left out.

That union, the Japan Actors Union, where she is a vice chair, launched Japan's first AI voice guidelines the same day. They ask for written consent at each stage, from teaching a model her voice to using the result, consent that lasts a year at most, an AI credit on the finished work, and no AI standing in for actors in anime and dubbing. Solo creators, fan artists and streamers count as businesses under the rules.

The catch is that the rules are voluntary and bind only those who sign up, and Japanese copyright law still allows training on copyrighted work. The courts are moving, though: on Sep 30 a Tokyo court ruled for the first time that a voice can be protected as a publicity right.

Sources: NHK, Japan Actors Union, Anime News Network, Oct 15 and 16, 2026.

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