Kenjiro Tsuda, the Japanese voice actor behind some of modern anime’s most famous characters including Yu-Gi-Oh’s Seto Kaiba, Jujutsu Kaisen’s Kento Nanami, and My Hero Academia’s Overhaul, has filed a lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court against the social media and video platform TikTok, alleging that 188 videos featuring an AI-generated recreation of his voice have been posted to the platform since July 2024.
As spotted by The Yomiuri Shimbun (via Automaton), Tsuda filed the suit back in November 2025, but the litigation wasn’t publicly reported on until May 23. According to the actor’s legal team, roughly 188 videos featuring an AI-slop rip-off of Tsuda’s voice have been uploaded to TikTok by a single account. The deepfakes are estimated to have generated monthly revenue of somewhere between ¥500,000 and ¥750,000, which roughly equates to between $3,100 and $4,700.
According to a statement provided to The Yomiuri Shimbun by Tsuda’s lawyers, the actor is suing TikTok for violating Japan’s Unfair Competition Prevention Law, specifically in regards to the law’s Article 2.1, which prohibits the act of “causing confusion with another person’s goods or business.”
“If unauthorized voice generation via AI is left unchecked, it could hinder the development of the voice acting industry,” stated Tsuda’s lawyers, in the translation provided by The Japan News. “Through winning this lawsuit, we hope to clarify the scope of what would constitute a violation of law and support voice actors in exercising their rights.”
However, the operator of TikTok’s Japanese subsidiary claims that the AI-narrated videos simply feature a “generic male voice,” which has been dubbed as the “艶つや/tsuya tsuya” voice by users on the platform (which roughly translates to “glossy/silky”). “We have been responding appropriately within the context of the lawsuit and will refrain from making any comment,” stated TikTok’s Japanese operator in a comment provided to The Yomiuri Shimbun. The first public argument in the case is expected to take place at some point in the next three months.
