Tokyo court says human voices can be protected by publicity rights, while rejecting Kenjiro Tsuda's TikTok removal claim

The Tokyo District Court rejected voice actor Kenjiro Tsuda's demand that TikTok remove AI-narrated videos, but it also made a first-of-its-kind finding in Japan: a person's voice can fall within the scope of publicity rights. The court said there was no remaining deletion obligation because the account and videos had already been removed, while recognizing that a commercially valuable voice may be protected when it is used without permission to exploit its customer-attracting power.