Japanese Publishers Demand Answers From Distributor Over AI Training Data Sales

Japanese book publishers have formally questioned Nihon Hanbai, the country's largest publishing distributor, over the sale of thousands of books to an AI company without author consent. The Japan Book Publishers Association (JBPA) sent an inquiry letter to Nihon Hanbai requesting factual confirmation about whether the distributor had sold books to AI firms—a practice discovered through U.S. court records involving Anthropic's landmark copyright settlement.