Yomiuri Sues AI Company

A holding company of one of the major newspapers in Japan, Yomiuri Shimbun, filed a lawsuit to Tokyo District Court against a startup on artificial intelligence (AI) technology in the United States. Yomiuri argues that Perplexity AI of the United States caused damages by using Yomiuri’s articles without authority in search services, taking advantage of generative AI. It marked the first case for Japanese press organization to sue AI technology company.

 

Yomiuri demanded Perplexity to stop using its articles and 2.168 billion yen of compensation for damages. The newspaper company calculated that 119,467 articles were used without authority between February and June in 2025, each of which worth 16,500 yen based on ordinary price of an article. Yomiuri argues that Perplexity violated copyright and the right of public transmission.

 

In addition, Yomiuri focused on its damage on advertisement, which income would have been received by Yomiuri through its website. Yomiuri supposed that its income was reduced by less visitors to its homepage, Yomiuri Online, because Perplexity blocked the visitors. Yomiuri accuses of freeride of Perplexity on vast efforts and expenditure of a news organization.

 

Established in 2022, Perplexity provides services in which AI answers questions of its users. Different from traditional search engines, which leads to websites related to words input, Perplexity presents summarized information, not directly connecting to the website. The users could access information of Yomiuri without watching homepage of the newspaper.

 

The Copyright Act allows AI to use copyrighted works without permission in the process of development, but Japan still does not have sufficient legal protection for copyright. Japan Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association issued a statement in May which required revision of laws for further regulation on generative AI. “To ensure the rights of right holders are respected, we strongly hope that the Japanese government and others will examine appropriate measures before unauthorized and unregulated use of news content by AI becomes a fait accompli,” says the statement.

 

Lawsuits against AI developers are increasing in the world. Dow Jones, which parent company is News Corporation, and New York Post sued Perplexity in October, 2024. The New York Times noticed Perplexity to stop using its articles without permission. In Europe, the BBC warned Perplexity that it would file a lawsuit, if it does not stop unauthorized use of contents.

 

Yomiuri argues that false use of articles damages democracy. “Freeride on the results of interviews brings negative impact on accurate reporting, causing eroding the basis of democracy,” said Yomiuri. Legal struggle between journalism and advanced technology began in Japan, too.

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