▲ A bookstore in Tokyo
A Japanese association of publishers has questioned a book distributor over suspicions that it may have sold a large volume of books to a U.S. artificial intelligence model developer for AI training, Kyodo News reported today (Oct. 6).
Following raised suspicions that Nippon Shuppan Hanbai (Nipphan), a book distributor, may have sold books in bulk to the U.S. AI firm Anthropic, the Japan Book Publishers Association sent a questionnaire requesting factual clarification.
The association asked Nippon Shuppan Hanbai to disclose whether publications from its member companies were included in the books sold to Anthropic, and to state its stance on selling books in bulk to overseas operators without the publishers' consent.
According to reports, court documents from a copyright lawsuit filed against Anthropic in the United States detail the process through which books were purchased from Nippon Shuppan Hanbai.
An official from the Japan Book Publishers Association stated, "It would be regrettable if the sales were made knowing the books would be used for AI training," emphasizing that books should not be sold for AI training purposes without the permission of publishers or authors.
The Japan Book Publishers Association consists of 380 member companies, including major Japanese publishers such as Kodansha and Bungeishunju.
In Japan, recent sightings of specialized books in fields such as philosophy, history, medicine, and law being sold in bulk at second-hand bookstores have sparked suspicions that AI model developers may have purchased them for training, scanned them, and then discarded them.
In connection with this, Nippon TV reported that a subsidiary of a major Japanese book distributor exported more than 50 tons of books to the United States, a massive scale amounting to approximately 100,000 volumes.
(Photo: Getty Images)
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