A Tokyo court has ruled for the first time in Japan that a person’s voice can be protected under publicity rights. The Tokyo District Court issued the decision on September 30, 2026, in a case brought by anime voice actor Kenjiro Tsuda.

Tsuda, 55, known for voicing Kento Nanami in Jujutsu Kaisen and Seto Kaiba in Yu-Gi-Oh, sued over an anonymous TikTok account called “Nanami.” The account posted at least 188 videos about urban legends and the paranormal between July 2024 and September 2025, narrated by an AI-generated voice resembling Tsuda’s deep baritone. It gathered more than 200,000 followers.

Presiding Judge Aya Takahashi ruled that “the human voice is symbolic of individual personality, just like one’s portrait.” She held that using a voice solely to exploit its commercial appeal can infringe publicity rights.

The court dismissed Tsuda’s deletion request because the account had already been deleted. It did not decide whether the videos actually infringed his rights. Tsuda’s lawyer called it the first ruling expressly covering voice, and said they will not appeal.