The Tokyo District Court was expected to decide on September 30, 2026, whether TikTok was responsible for removing videos that Kenjiro Tsuda says used an AI imitation of his voice. The Japanese voice actor’s individual lawsuit seeks removal of the posts.
What Tsuda’s lawsuit asks the court to decide
Tsuda filed an individual lawsuit in Tokyo in November 2025. His legal team argues that the alleged imitation infringes his publicity rights, which concern control over the commercial value of a person’s identity. The case puts TikTok’s responsibility for removing the videos before the court.
The disputed videos and the parties’ positions
The videos were posted by an anonymous TikTok account and paired images with narration about urban legends, occult phenomena and conspiracy theories. The case concerns those user-posted narrations, not TikTok’s built-in text-to-speech voice.
Tsuda’s legal team says the narration imitates his voice and violates his publicity rights. TikTok’s reported position is that the narration used a generic male voice and that the platform hosts user content within the limits of free speech.
Japan’s guidance on voices and likenesses
Japan’s Ministry of Justice issued nonbinding guidance on existing rights relevant to voices and likenesses. The guidance’s effect on Tsuda’s case was uncertain.
