Voice Constructs Personality

Can one’s voice legally be protected as personality? The court answered “yes” to this question. Tokyo District Court approved the argument of a voice actor who demanded legal protection of his voice which was used in large number of videos without permission. The court found that use of voice without permission for attracting customers would violate right of publicity. 

Animation is prevalent in TV program or movie theaters in Japan. Some works, including “Demon Slayer” or “Attack on Titan,” are highly recognized in the world. “Spirited Away” received Oscar in U.S. Academy Awards in 2003. With high popularity of animation, voice actors play important role in those film works. Voice actor became a very popular profession, attracting a lot of fans of animation.

 

Kenjiro Tsuda, known as acted for Kento Nanami in Jujutsu Kaisen in voice, sued the operator of TikTok in November 2025, demanding deletion on movies that imitated Tsuda’s voice in them. The court recognized that an anonymous account which had over 210 thousand followers posted 188 occult movies between July 2024 and September 2025. Tsuda argued that voiceover in the movies was close to the voice of him.

 

In the lawsuit, Tsuda argued that the viewers falsely took the voice as Tsuda’s and attracted the viewers as if Tsuda was talking in the movies. Tsuda asserted that acting like him violated the right of celebrity who can exclusively use the voice or portrait as personality. The defendant argued that the voice was generated by artificial intelligence using another person’s voice.

 

The court found that voice of a person is one of the symbols of an individual and legally protected as a publicity right. It made the first example for the court to recognize voice as a publicity right. Although there is no law that provides right on voice, the decision will work as a regulation on unpermitted use or generation of voice actor’s voice using AI technology.

 

The court, however, dismissed the lawsuit of Tsuda that demanded deletion of posting, because that anonymous account was deleted by May 2026. The court recognized no obligation of TikTok to delete the video. It did not determine that the movies imitated Tsuda’s voice or judgement on illegality of cases in which voice is used without permission.

 

Tsuda will not appeal to higher court, because his argument on unpermitted use of voice was approved by the court. The defendant is considering how to respond to the decision of right on voice. If this decision of the court is fixed, it will be the case that protects the job of voice actors which is widely recognized as a cultural business in Japan.

 

AI can easily generate voices which sounds close to actor’s voice. If the actor is highly popular in animation movies, the video with imitated voice can collect large number of viewers. It is close to the dispute over copyright over publishing. 

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