The lawsuit filed by Tsuda, known for his starring roles in mega-franchises including ‘Jujutsu Kaisen’, ‘Chainsaw Man’ and ‘Yu-Gi-Oh!’, is believed to be the country’s first seeking to defend an individual’s vocal identity against AI-generated copies.

Tsuda is demanding TikTok remove a slew of videos narrated by a distinctively “deep” and “lustrous” voice that the 55-year-old says can only be his.

The platform, however, argues it is a “generic male voice” whose perceived similarity to Tsuda’s is subjective at best, according to court records accessed by AFP.

AI imitation is a growing concern among performers worldwide, and the threat has roiled Japan’s storied animation industry, whose voice actors are sometimes worshipped as much as their characters by fans.

An actor’s voice “is the result of years of rigorous training and apprenticeship” to hone talent, Yuko Sasaki, executive director of the Japan Actors Union, told AFP.

“It’s something we spend lots of time and money perfecting,” said Sasaki, a fellow voice actor, adding that “we support Tsuda wholeheartedly”.

The court should “acknowledge that ownership of a voice is a fundamental right”, she said.

An anonymous account, whose picture resembled Kento Nanami, a ‘Jujutsu Kaisen’ character dubbed by Tsuda, posted the videos in question.

They combined images and seemingly AI-generated speech about urban legends, occult phenomena and conspiracy theories.

The account at one point boasted more than 200,000 subscribers and would have brought in upwards of 500,000 yen ($3,200) in monthly revenue, the legal complaint argued.

‘Sordid content’

The account, whose posts mostly lacked original substance, “only gained popularity because its dubious, sordid content was narrated by the attractive voice of a popular actor”, Tsuda’s legal team said, according to the court records.

This infringes Tsuda’s so-called publicity rights — the ability to control and profit from the use of aspects of one’s identity — his attorneys said.

Although the account itself is no longer viewable on the platform, the Tokyo District Court will rule on whether TikTok was responsible for deleting the posts.

Parallel to the lawsuit, Sasaki and other Japanese voice actors have launched a campaign, called “No More”, against using generative AI to mimic performers without permission.

“Our industry can be crushed” if a court win for TikTok triggers “unbridled” AI voice cloning on social media, actor Bin Shimada told AFP.

That could cause younger actors to “lose hope”, said Shimada, who is part of the campaign group.

It is also fast becoming a global issue.

“In many countries, copyright and data protection laws are not being adequately adapted” to protect performers from AI clones, the International Federation of Actors said last year.

ChatGPT maker OpenAI was forced to apologise in 2024 to star Scarlett Johansson over a synthetic voice that sounded like her, released after she declined to work with OpenAI on the project.

International interest

While no law explicitly enshrines a person’s voice in Japan, the justice ministry published legally non-binding guidelines last month clarifying its protection under existing rights.

As “the symbol of one’s personality”, voice is subject to “publicity rights” and “rights to prevent unauthorised use of one’s portrait and likeness”, the ministry said.

But it remains to be seen whether and how the guidelines will influence Wednesday’s court decision on Tsuda’s case.

TikTok has questioned the actor’s “national fame”, rejecting his accusations that the account was free-riding on a well-known brand in a violation of Japan’s unfair competition prevention laws.

As a platform, all it did was “host a forum where users could post creative and ingenious content within the scope of free speech”, it told the court.

It is “very unlikely” that Tsuda’s voice will be outright denied publicity rights, Tatsuhiro Ueno, a professor of intellectual property studies at Waseda University, told AFP.

Given the actor’s ‘Jujutsu Kaisen’ role as a stoic, elite sorcerer that made his voice “highly recognisable in Europe”, Ueno believes the verdict “will garner a lot of international interest”.

Veteran voice actor Michihiro Ikemizu, 83, also expressed solidarity with Tsuda — but said that AI, however sophisticated it gets, will never outperform human actors.

“You need to constantly feel and adapt while performing your role. That’s something AI can never do,” Ikemizu told AFP.

“That’s our only weapon.”

In March, then prime minister Keir Starmer granted permission for “defensive” US action against Iranian missile sites from two UK bases including Fairford.

Armed officers detained the group in the early hours of Sunday after a call to emergency services about three “suspicious vehicles which appeared to be travelling towards the airbase”, London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

The suspects were initially held near the Royal Air Force (RAF) Fairford air base in Gloucestershire, southwest England, on suspicion of explosives offences.

Some 85 households in the nearby village of Whelford were advised to evacuate and army bomb disposal experts were called in to examine three vans stopped on a rural road.

“Counter Terrorism Policing can now confirm they are leading an investigation into an incident which took place overnight near RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire,” the Met statement added.

Broadcast aerial footage showed a bomb disposal robot on a rural road moving around the vans, two of which had their rear doors open.

Police believed the incident had been “contained” and a 400-metre cordon had been put in place. Armed officers could be seen guarding the entrance to the base.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham was being kept updated on the incident, a government spokesperson said.

“We are grateful to the emergency services, who have acted quickly to detain several suspects and put measures in place to keep the community safe,” the spokesperson said.

“It would be inappropriate to comment further whilst investigations are ongoing.”

Defence Minister Wes Streeting thanked “emergency and specialist teams” deployed to the scene.

“We can be reassured that this is being dealt with,” he said on X.

Gloucestershire Police said earlier it had declared a “major incident” with several men arrested “on suspicion of offences under the Explosives Act”.

Villagers evacuated

Residents were evacuated to a nearby leisure centre, police said.

Villager Julian Tudsbery said he was woken and advised to leave at about 7am (11am PKT) by police “banging on the door”.

He said a fellow villager had alerted police in the middle of the night after spotting the vans.

“They phoned the airbase police, who didn’t answer the phone. It just rang out so she dialled 999,” he told the BBC.

Fairford is the UK base of the 501st Combat Support Wing, a US air force administrative support wing, which said in a statement that no US air force personnel had been involved in the incident.

“The 501st Combat Support Wing appreciates the swift response and continued support of our local law enforcement partners,” it said.

“We remain in close coordination with our UK partners to help ensure the safety and security of both our military and local communities,” it added.

The MP for the area, Roz Savage, described the situation as “worrying”.

“I have contacted the police for further updates and I’ve been told that it is believed the incident is contained,” she said on X.

The incident comes amid concerns about the actions of hostile foreign states.

Interior Minister Shabana Mahmood has accused Iran and Russia of using proxies to carry out criminal activities on their behalf on UK territory.

Earlier this month, reports said British military sites had been targeted by drones more than 300 times over the past year.

Britain’s defence ministry did not disclose who was behind the drone activity, but the figures come as European countries have warned of an increase in suspected Russian hybrid operations on their territory. Russia denies mounting hybrid attacks on Western nations.

Britain said in July its armed forces were ready to protect the country from any attack after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards issued a warning not to allow US bombers to fly from Fairford.