A Japanese court recognizes voice as protectable publicity

In voice actor Kenjiro Tsuda's case involving TikTok, Tokyo District Court said a human voice can symbolize personality like a portrait and that unauthorized use clearly exploiting its commercial appeal may infringe publicity rights. It was Japan's first generative-AI voice case to recognize that principle. The account had posted more than 180 videos allegedly imitating Tsuda's voice, but the court dismissed his deletion request because the account and videos were already gone. The judgment establishes a protection theory without granting a takedown remedy in this case, and it does not amount to a complete new AI-voice statute.