Three men and a woman have been arrested for allegedly selling via online auctions explicit posters featuring images of women created using generative artificial intelligence, with Tokyo police saying Tuesday it is the first time in Japan that such crime came to light.
Tomohiro Mizutani, a 44-year-old retail worker who lives in Aichi Prefecture, was among those arrested Monday on the charge of distributing and displaying obscene objects to unspecified buyers.
The charge is related specifically to transactions in October, but Mizutani is believed to have racked up 10 million yen ($70,000) in sales over approximately a year.
Of the four suspects, aged between their 20s and 50s, Mizutani and two others have admitted to the allegations, saying they used AI to "make money easily."
The other accused person has denied some of the allegations, according to the Metropolitan Police Department's safety section.
The four used generative AI software available free on the internet to create explicit images of women, instructing the technology to produce images of the figures in certain poses and situations.
They pitched the posters as "AI beauty," selling them for several thousand yen each.
Apparently to avoid being banned from selling the items, the suspects displayed posters with censored images in the online auctions. However, they shipped uncensored versions to customers.
The alleged crimes were detected when the police were conducting cyber patrols, they said.
Countries are stepping up efforts to regulate and crack down on AI-generated graphic images and videos known as "deepfake pornography." The issue gained worldwide attention last year when explicit deepfakes featuring superstar American singer Taylor Swift went viral.
In Japan, there are no laws clearly restricting pornographic deepfake images, according to the Children and Families Agency.
But a local assembly in Tottori Prefecture, western Japan, passed in March an ordinance banning the creation and provision of deepfake pornography as part of efforts to protect minors from sexual abuse.
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Four arrested for selling obscene AI images in first crackdown of its kind
Japanese police have arrested four people for selling AI-generated obscene images in the first of its kind clampdown on the sale of pornographic images in the country.
The suspects, arrested in Tokyo, were accused of selling posters with obscene images on internet auction sites in October of last year, NHK reported.
They had allegedly used AI software to make nude images of non-existent women.
The posters were reportedly sold for thousands of yen.
A 2019 study by Dutch AI company Sensity found that around 96 per cent of deepfake videos online were non-consensual pornography.
According to a survey by Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun, the East Asian nation ranks third in traffic to websites that disseminate sexually explicit deepfake images, with over 18 million visits. The United States ranks second, while India ranks first in terms of users visiting these websites.
The survey, conducted with digital analytics firm Similarweb, analysed data from 41 websites that enabled users to produce sexually explicit images between December 2023 and November 2024.
Nearly 410,000 users in Japan visited these websites monthly, with 80 per cent accessing through their smartphones.
Digital technology experts have demanded better regulation of such content.
"It is believed that there has potentially been much more damage than we are aware of,” said professor Yuasa Harumichi of Meiji University.
“Regulations on fake porn should be imposed before the damage spreads, and discussions should start immediately,” he told NHK in December 2024.
Tomohiro Mizutani, a 44-year-old retail worker who lives in Aichi Prefecture, was among those arrested Monday on the charge of distributing and displaying obscene objects to unspecified buyers.
The charge is related specifically to transactions in October, but Mizutani is believed to have racked up 10 million yen ($70,000) in sales over approximately a year.
Of the four suspects, aged between their 20s and 50s, Mizutani and two others have admitted to the allegations, saying they used AI to "make money easily."
The other accused person has denied some of the allegations, according to the Metropolitan Police Department's safety section.
The four used generative AI software available free on the internet to create explicit images of women, instructing the technology to produce images of the figures in certain poses and situations.
They pitched the posters as "AI beauty," selling them for several thousand yen each.
Apparently to avoid being banned from selling the items, the suspects displayed posters with censored images in the online auctions. However, they shipped uncensored versions to customers.
The alleged crimes were detected when the police were conducting cyber patrols, they said.
Countries are stepping up efforts to regulate and crack down on AI-generated graphic images and videos known as "deepfake pornography." The issue gained worldwide attention last year when explicit deepfakes featuring superstar American singer Taylor Swift went viral.
In Japan, there are no laws clearly restricting pornographic deepfake images, according to the Children and Families Agency.
But a local assembly in Tottori Prefecture, western Japan, passed in March an ordinance banning the creation and provision of deepfake pornography as part of efforts to protect minors from sexual abuse.
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Four arrested for selling obscene AI images in first crackdown of its kind
Japanese police have arrested four people for selling AI-generated obscene images in the first of its kind clampdown on the sale of pornographic images in the country.
The suspects, arrested in Tokyo, were accused of selling posters with obscene images on internet auction sites in October of last year, NHK reported.
They had allegedly used AI software to make nude images of non-existent women.
The posters were reportedly sold for thousands of yen.
A 2019 study by Dutch AI company Sensity found that around 96 per cent of deepfake videos online were non-consensual pornography.
According to a survey by Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun, the East Asian nation ranks third in traffic to websites that disseminate sexually explicit deepfake images, with over 18 million visits. The United States ranks second, while India ranks first in terms of users visiting these websites.
The survey, conducted with digital analytics firm Similarweb, analysed data from 41 websites that enabled users to produce sexually explicit images between December 2023 and November 2024.
Nearly 410,000 users in Japan visited these websites monthly, with 80 per cent accessing through their smartphones.
Digital technology experts have demanded better regulation of such content.
"It is believed that there has potentially been much more damage than we are aware of,” said professor Yuasa Harumichi of Meiji University.
“Regulations on fake porn should be imposed before the damage spreads, and discussions should start immediately,” he told NHK in December 2024.
You must be registered to see links
