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Japan's Government Panel Moves to Protect Voices From Unauthorized Generative AI Use

An expert panel for the Ministry of Justice of Japan held its first meeting on Friday to discuss how to protect voices from unauthorized generative AI use. State Minister of Justice Hidehiro Mitani stated near the beginning of the meeting, “While losses related to unauthorized use of a voice is significant, the burden of determining the scope of protections in court is too great to place on voice actors, and others considering those protections may not keep with the rapid pace of AI technologies' development.”

No concrete decisions regarding the protection of voices were made during the first meeting. However, the panel determined that “voice rights” fall under the same category as “portrait rights” and “publicity rights” under Japanese law. The panel will meet in the future to determine how existing Japanese laws will address infringement by unauthorized use of voices.

Voice Actors Move Against Unauthorized Generative AI Use of Voices

In late October 2024, several voice actors announced they had founded the No More Mudan Seisei AI (No More Unauthorized Generative AI) group. The organization was founded to protect voice actors from unauthorized generative AI use of their voices.

In his own bid to protect his voice from unauthorized generative AI use, voice actor Yūki Kaji developed his own voice synthesis program Soyogi Fractal in June 2024. Prior to Soyogi Fractal's release, Kaji stated he was concerned about copyright issues surrounding voices, which led to the development of the voice synthesis program. Kaji then left the talent agency VIMS on April 8 and started his own company for Soyogi Fractal the next day.

Sources: NHK, The Asahi Shimbun, The Ministry of Justice of Japan via Yaraon