Tokyo: voice actor Kenjiro Tsuda sues TikTok's operator, alleging an anonymous account posted at least 188 monetised videos narrated by a generative-AI imitation of his voice between July 2024 and September 2025; TikTok says it is a generic male voice, and the Tokyo District Court is due to rule on 30 September 2026
Kenjiro Tsuda, a Japanese voice actor known for roles in Jujutsu Kaisen, sued the operator of TikTok in the Tokyo District Court in November 2025, seeking removal of videos he says use a generative-AI imitation of his voice without permission. According to his complaint, as reported by Jiji Press, Nikkei and the Asahi Shimbun, an account run by an unidentified person posted at least 188 short videos on urban legends, the occult and trivia between July 2024 and September 2025, narrated in a voice modelled on his; the account had about 210,000 followers, videos averaged 1.47 million views, and his side says the poster earned 500,000 to 750,000 yen a month from TikTok's view-based payments. Viewers commented that the voice sounded like him. He argues this infringes his right of publicity and the Unfair Competition Prevention Act by passing the videos off as his narration. TikTok's operator denies that the voice is shown to be his, calls it a generic male voice, says the account and videos were deleted after the suit was filed and asks for dismissal; the poster reportedly said online that the voice was made by training AI on a friend's voice. It is described as Japan's first lawsuit over AI imitation of a voice, with judgment due on 30 September 2026.
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution disputed · 4 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 28/09/2026