Japanese book wholesaler Nippan confirms selling bulk books to Anthropic, raising AI training concerns

What happened

Nippan Group Holdings Inc., the parent of Nippon Shuppan Hanbai (Nippan), confirmed to the Japan Book Publishers Association that a group company sold books to Anthropic for approximately one year beginning in December 2024, the association said after court filings in a U.S. copyright lawsuit revealed Anthropic had held discussions with "Nippan Japan" about bulk book purchases. In a Sept. 17 letter, the association asked whether the books included titles from its member companies and questioned selling large quantities to overseas customers without publisher permission. The company said it had not known the books were intended for AI training. Concerns are growing in Japan's publishing industry that the books may have had their spines cut and been digitized for AI training.

Why it may matter to you

It adds a supply-chain dimension to the AI training-data disputes: books may be entering model pipelines through ordinary wholesale channels, not just piracy sites. It connects to the Bartz v. Anthropic arc, where the plaintiffs alleged Anthropic built a permanent library from hundreds of thousands of pirated books before settling for $1.5 billion.

What is not yet known

How many books were sold, whether any were actually digitized or used to train Claude models, and whether publishers will pursue legal action against Nippan or Anthropic.