Japan's book publishers ask distributor Nippan to explain book sales linked to Anthropic's training programme

What happened

On 17 September 2026, the Japan Book Publishers Association (JBPA), which represents around 380 Japanese publishers, sent a written request to Nippan Group Holdings, one of Japan's largest book distributors. The association asked Nippan to explain whether books supplied in connection with Anthropic included titles published by JBPA members and, if so, to give details; to explain the legal basis for selling large quantities of books to a foreign company without the publishers' approval; and to stop new sales of books for AI-training purposes and state its policy on supplying books to AI companies.

The request follows reporting that court records in *Bartz v. Anthropic* in the United States — the authors' suit over pirated-book training that ended in a $1.5 billion settlement — refer to 'Nippan Japan' and to a book-purchase agreement Anthropic concluded with Nippan in November 2024, in terms indicating the books were bought to be scanned. Nippan told the Asahi Shimbun it would decline to answer questions about individual transactions, including whether any transaction occurred, and stated that, in this matter and generally, its group has never sold books recognising them as being for an AI company's training use. Anthropic did not respond to the Asahi's request for comment.

Why it may matter to you

If you are a Japanese publisher or author, this is the first organised step by the Japanese publishing industry to trace how physical books reached an AI company's scanning programme — and to cut off that supply route. The distributors who sold books onward may hold the only records of which titles were involved.

What is not yet known

It has not been established that any books bought from Nippan were actually scanned or used to train a model; the volumes, prices and titles in the November 2024 agreement are redacted in the US court records. No lawsuit has been filed in Japan over this, and selling books to an AI company is not in itself prohibited under Japanese law.