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August 14, 2026
 

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INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

An expert panel at the Justice Ministry on Monday discusses civil liability for the unauthorized use of celebrities' voices and likenesses.
JAPAN
Jul 28, 2026
Panel backs civil liability for unauthorized AI use of public figures¡¯ voices
Draft report says voices would be protected under the right of publicity, which allows celebrities to control the commercial value of their names and portraits.
A Pokemon event is held in Jakarta on July 11
BUSINESS
Jul 23, 2026
Japan weighs regulating Pokemon cards amid trading mania
The collecting and trading of cards, once a pastime confined to the schoolyard, is now a lucrative global market.
Seven-Eleven Japan has warned against franchise owners and employees setting aside popular animation and game character products before putting them on store shelves.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 23, 2026
Seven-Eleven Japan warns stores over unauthorized character item resale
There were reportedly cases where owners and employees bought up or set aside such products before putting them on store shelves and reselling them.
Representatives of organizations behind products newly registered as geographical indications (GI), including Japanese tea, pose with Vice Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Yuhei Yamashita (second from right) at the ministry on Friday.
JAPAN
Jul 10, 2026
Government registers ¡®Japanese tea¡¯ under brand protection system
The agriculture ministry aims to combat intellectual property infringement by imitation products amid a global boom in matcha.
Content that infringes on an artist¡¯s copyrights include using AI to make a live-action version of an anime from images of celebrities or generating anime characters¡¯ voices to have them sing popular songs.
JAPAN
Jul 9, 2026
AI-related copyright losses cost celebrities up to ?4.5 billion, study says
Over 43,000 AI-generated images and videos that used celebrities¡¯ likenesses without their consent were created over a two-month period last year.
Born on social media platforms in 2022, Opanchu Usagi has become a major hit, especially among Generation Z.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 6, 2026
Japan bets on character IP to drive global growth
Hard-working Japanese businesses and creators are banding together to drive what is now one of Â鶹´«Ã½ most valuable assets.
Alibaba¡¯s American depositary receipts sank to a session low on the news, falling more than 3% to $99.10 at 3:38 p.m. in New York on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 25, 2026
Anthropic accuses Alibaba of ¡®illicitly¡¯ accessing AI models
The U.S. AI developer had previously decided to keep its products out of China.
A cyber extortion group has claimed that pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk refused the group's demand of $25 million after stealing more than a terabyte of data from the company.
BUSINESS
Jun 17, 2026
Hacking group claims major attack of Novo Nordisk and attempted $25 million extortion
FulcrumSec, a cyber extortion group that emerged in October 2025, has said in a message ?posted online that it spent more than two months in Novo Nordisk¡¯s ?networks stealing data.
U.S. President Donald Trump posted an apparently AI-generated video on his digital platform Truth Social last Saturday that included a short segment depicting himself dressed as the protagonist from the popular anime franchise "Naruto.¡±
JAPAN
Jun 13, 2026
Japan pushes back on Trump¡¯s anime posts
President Donald Trump¡¯s use of Japanese anime-style imagery on his social media account has not gone over well in Japan.
A popular voice actor has sued TikTok¡¯s operator over videos allegedly using an AI-generated imitation of his voice without permission.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 26, 2026
Actor files lawsuit against TikTok operator over AI-generated voice use
The lawsuit, filed with the Tokyo District Court by Kenjiro Tsuda last November,?is believed to be the first of its kind in Japan.
A SkyFall P1-Sun interceptor drone during trials in Ukraine in March. Through a combination of new technology and tactics, Kyiv¡¯s forces have been able to strike deep into Russian territory, to slow and in some cases even reverse battlefield gains by Moscow¡¯s bigger army and inflict significant damage on oil facilities that help finance the Kremlin¡¯s war machine.
WORLD / Politics
May 20, 2026
U.S. seeking transfer of intellectual property rights in drone deal, Kyiv says
Washington appears interested in getting access to critical technologies and rights that would allow it to replicate the equipment, a source said.
The culture agency is looking to pass the copyright revision in the current parliamentary session ending in July and aims to have the law take effect within the next three years.
JAPAN / Society
May 15, 2026
Copyright law revision to extend compensation for artists
The Cabinet on Friday pushed forward the bill, which, once passed by parliament, aims to pass on usage fees to musicians.
A new crackdown on online piracy and counterfeit goods by Vietnam will also tackle copyright violations by ?computer programs, movies, music, TV shows and online video games.
BUSINESS
May 6, 2026
Vietnam cracks down on online piracy and counterfeit goods amid U.S. tariff threat
Washington revived the prospect of fresh tariffs last week over Hanoi¡¯s ?¡°persistent failure¡± to tackle intellectual property violations.
Chen Li-ming, a former Tokyo Electron employee, arrives at the Intellectual Property and Commercial Court for a verdict in a trade secrets case involving Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Tokyo Electron¡¯s Taiwan unit, in New Taipei City, Taiwan, on Monday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 27, 2026
Former Tokyo Electron staff gets decade in jail for TSMC breach
Taiwan¡¯s Intellectual Property and Commercial Court also handed out jail sentences on four others and fined Tokyo Electron¡¯s local unit.
Japan's Zoom asked Zoom Video Communications to stop using the logo for the videoconferencing service in April 2020.
BUSINESS
Apr 24, 2026
Zoom ordered to pay damages for violating Japan firm¡¯s trademark
In handing down the ruling, the presiding judge acknowledged that the two companies¡¯ logos were similar in appearance and name.
The Japan Commercial Broadcasters Association is calling for social media platforms to adopt stricter regulations toward those engaged in illegal postings.
JAPAN / Media
Mar 23, 2026
?3.2 billion lost in advertising revenue due to illicit postings on YouTube
Given a sampling of only 300 social media accounts for its illegal streaming survey, the Japan Commercial Broadcasters Association called its results ¡°only the tip of the iceberg.¡±
A video posted by the White House featuring a graphic from Nintendo's Wii Sports video game.
JAPAN
Mar 14, 2026
Japanese games and manga used in White House¡¯s airstrike videos
The videos have been criticized for making light of deadly attacks.
As Japan accelerates AI adoption, policymakers and corporations frame the technology as essential to offsetting a projected labor shortfall of 11 million workers by 2040.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Mar 2, 2026
Japan is betting big on AI. Few workers have used it.
Surveys show strong public confidence, despite shallow workplace adoption and unresolved cultural concerns.
The Cultural Affairs Agency will introduce a new system in April that compels users to pay copyright fees even in cases in which the creator or the copyright holder is not known.
JAPAN
Feb 27, 2026
Culture agency to charge fees for use of works by unknown authors
From April, copyright holders of previously unattributed works who come forward after the agency grants usage permission for them can obtain compensation from it.
Visitors at the Tokyo Game Show 2025 held in the city of Chiba in September. The government has set a target of boosting annual overseas sales of Japanese content such as anime and video games to ?20 trillion by 2033.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Feb 11, 2026
Japan to boost aid for video games and anime as new pillar of growth
Placing the content industry as a new pillar of economic growth, the government set a target of boosting annual overseas sales to ?20 trillion by 2033.
Forty-five meters down, a diver races to record a fleeting moment of WWII history
Kingo Wakasa photographs the kamikaze plane wing section he discovered at the USS Emmons wreck site.
New ¡®Katsu Curry Index¡¯ aims to show how weak the yen really is
A CoCo Ichibanya curry house in Tokyo.
Mexican man arrested over attempt to smuggle some 200 lizards into Japan
Mexican alligator lizards seized by Tokyo Customs from a Mexican man who attempted to smuggle them into Japan on Saturday through Haneda Airport
Gut bacteria may be behind many of Â鶹´«Ã½ colorectal cancer cases
A Japanese research team found that a toxin produced by certain E. coli strains, colibactin, caused genetic mutations in nearly half of colorectal cancer cases studied
She is Russia¡¯s richest woman. Her business empire is going up in flames.
Tatyana Kim, the head and co-founder of Wildberries, speaks about Ukrainian drone attacks on the company's warehouses in the course of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, at an unidentified location, in this still image from a handout video released on July 31.
Forty-five meters down, a diver races to record a fleeting moment of WWII history
Kingo Wakasa photographs the kamikaze plane wing section he discovered at the USS Emmons wreck site.
Ikarigata closer to emulating older brother Fujinokawa than many think
The future Fujinokawa (third from left) and Ikarigata (right) compete against each other at ages 5 and 3, respectively.
Where do foreign residents in Japan want to die?
The Yokohama Foreign General Cemetery is one of the few cemeteries in Japan that allows burials, albeit with conditions for the deceased, including foreign nationality and permanent residency in Kanagawa Prefecture.
¡®Total whiplash¡¯: Foreign residents react to Â鶹´«Ã½ changing permanent residency rules
The entrance to the Tokyo Immigration Bureau in Minato Ward, Tokyo, in March. For some foreign residents of Japan, tightening measures for permanent residency have become one factor in a broader calculation over whether remaining in the country makes financial sense over the long term.
As Â鶹´«Ã½ concrete jungles sizzle, urban forestry offers an all-natural fix
People and birds find relief from the sun in Tokyo's Nakano Ward earlier this month. While experts agree that urban greening is crucial to mitigating the impact of climate change, trees are becoming even more scarce in Japanese cities.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo¡¯s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo¡¯s ¡®stadium of desire¡¯

Longform

Disaster relief workers Taichi Kato (left) and Seiji Yoshimura enter the collapsed living quarters at Kyuganji temple in Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture.
What Kumamoto revealed about Â鶹´«Ã½ earthquake readiness
By Alex K.T. Martin

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