Performers in Japan who find an AI imitation of their voice online now have a free first place to turn. On September 28, VOICENCE, a unit of NTT West, opened an online consultation service together with Tokyo lawyer Hajime Idei of Kotto Dori Law Office. Voice actors, stage and screen actors, narrators, musicians, comedians and their agencies can all use it, and so can companies that want to use synthetic voices without provoking a backlash or a rights claim.
The service is known in Japanese simply as the voice consultation desk, and it costs nothing to use. Its organisers say that for many performers the first obstacle is not the law itself but knowing whom to ask. The service works through a web form. Staff reply with general guidance, offer a longer online session where it is needed, and refer people to an outside expert only if legal action looks likely and the person wants that. Each case is then anonymised and added to a shared pool of experience, which the organisers intend to turn into published guidance on voice use and on the contracts that should be in place before anyone's voice is modelled.
The typical problems it expects are familiar ones: a clone that sounds exactly like a performer turning up on YouTube or social media, an offer to have a voice turned into an AI model with no idea what to check, or simply wanting advice on whether to use AI with one's own voice at all. Idei says many questions will be practical rather than legal, such as what current technology can actually do and how agencies should explain the risks to the talent they represent.
The launch cites a nonprofit's survey that counted more than 40,000 images and videos in the 2025 fiscal year that appeared to use AI to imitate celebrities or voice actors without permission, with estimated losses of roughly 2 to 4.5 billion yen. Japan's Ministry of Justice issued guidelines in August 2026 on civil liability for unauthorised use of likeness and voice, but VOICENCE stresses these only clarify how existing law applies; there is still no statute protecting the voice as such, which leaves freelancers without an agency or union especially exposed. In practice a performer who hears their voice selling something online must piece together publicity rights, unfair competition rules, platform complaint forms and legal fees.
The report notes an obvious tension. VOICENCE is not a union or charity but a voice AI business launched in October 2025, which models performers' voices and licenses them to companies while sharing the income. The desk says it recommends no particular service and aims to help people weigh risks for themselves; its chief executive, Takashi Hanashiro, describes it as a place to listen to people who work with their voices and decide next steps together, arguing that technology alone cannot solve these problems. The outlet's advice is that the help is useful, but callers should remember who is hosting it.
The timing is pointed: two days after the desk opens, the Tokyo District Court is due to rule on voice actor Kenjiro Tsuda's suit against TikTok, the country's first case over an AI copy of a performer's voice.
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