- Last updated
- 13 October 2026
- Nature
- AI persona
- Niche
- Fashion
- Style
- Photorealistic
- Debut
- 2019
- Origin
- Tokyo, Japan (bio: L.A / Tokyo)
- Created by
- 1SEC Inc.
Summary
Liam Nikuro (リアム・ニクロ) is a male virtual human made by the Tokyo and Los Angeles venture company 1SEC, which presents him as Japan's first male virtual influencer. His face is a 3D CG model built from photogrammetry scanning and composited onto photographed live models, according to CGWORLD, and Japanese coverage describes the result as hard to tell from a real person. MoguLive dated his launch to March 27, 2019 on Instagram, with an X account following on April 3, 2019. Early coverage places him in fashion, music and entertainment, styled in brands such as Acne Studios, Balenciaga and Louis Vuitton (KAI-YOU), and he took part in an NBA collaboration reported by FashionSnap. 1SEC's founder Hirokuni "Genie" Miyaji has been described as his voice on social media. Campaign Asia counted about 5,000 Instagram followers in its early profile of him. Today his Instagram bio reads "I was born in 2019 as an AI human" and his X bio "AI human". Both accounts are quiet: the latest Instagram post read is from July 2024, and VirtualHumans lists the persona as inactive or discontinued.
Is Liam Nikuro AI?
Yes. Liam Nikuro is a computer-generated virtual human, presented as Japan's first male virtual influencer, made and run by the Tokyo start-up 1SEC since 2019. No real person is named as him.
Every source that discusses how he is made agrees he is not a real person. MoguLive's 2019 launch report says 1SEC created him by compositing a 3D CG face onto a live-action body. In a 2020 FashionSnap interview, 1SEC's CEO Hirokuni Miyaji and COO Narutoshi Nakamura talk about Liam as the company's male virtual human and describe working on the skin texture of his CG face. CGWORLD calls him 1SEC's first virtual human. His own Instagram bio, as VirtualHumans records it, reads "I'm Virtual human" with the tags #CGI #AI #ROBOT. The operator's own statements make this strong evidence.
"AI" here mostly means CGI, not today's image generators. His face is a hand-built 3D model, and the bodies in his photos are real people photographed on set. None of the sources names those body models, and no human performs as Liam publicly, so he counts as an AI persona rather than a hybrid. Campaign Asia's early profile reportedly named Miyaji as the voice behind his posts. That page is now behind a login and could not be checked again.
Still unknown: who the body doubles were, and who has written his posts since 2020. Both accounts have been quiet since July 2024, and VirtualHumans lists him as inactive or discontinued.
Evidence
MoguLive's launch report says Liam Nikuro is a virtual character made by the venture company 1SEC by compositing a 3D CG face onto a live-action body.
moguravr.comIn a FashionSnap interview, 1SEC's CEO Miyaji and COO Nakamura describe Liam as the company's male virtual human, which it develops and operates, and say they took care over the skin texture of his CG face.
fashionsnap.comCGWORLD's interview with 1SEC says Liam Nikuro was the company's first virtual human and, by 1SEC's own count, Japan's first male one.
cgworld.jpVirtualHumans records his Instagram bio as "I'm Virtual human. L.A ⇄ Tokyo #CGI #AI #ROBOT", calls him a creation of Tokyo-based 1sec Inc. and lists him as inactive or discontinued.
virtualhumans.org
Assessed 9 October 2026
Audience over time
How their audience has moved
Followers · all platforms
12k
▼ 2 (−0.0%) since 9 Oct 2026
Instagram 11k · X 1k
Added up from 9 Oct 2026, once every platform had been read; tracked since 5 Oct 2026. Each platform is read about once a week.