Four people have been arrested in Japan on suspicion of selling obscene porn posters created by generative AI, in a move that Japanese media reported marked the first arrests in the country for selling AI-created obscene images.
Tokyo police said that on April 14, 2025 the four accused, variously aged in their 20s and 50s, were arrested on charges related to allegedly selling obscene images. They allegedly used a free AI system to produce porn images of non-existent, ‘fictional’ women, using text prompts such as “legs open”.
Some of the posters allegedly featured blurring effects when they were advertised, to censor some of the more graphic details. However, when the posters were delivered they allegedly featured no blurring, with the AI-generated genitals fully on show.
This is what caused the distributors to fall foul of the law. In Japan it’s not illegal to use generative AI to create porn, but it is illegal to distribute porn featuring genitals that are not censored, which is usually achieved by video and blurring effects on images and video. It seems that even though the women in the posters weren’t real, this didn’t affect the police’s view of the material as breaching censorship laws.
The four people arrested face prison terms of up to two years, and fines of up to 2.5 million yen ($17,500). They allegedly sold the AI porn posters for thousands of yen each (1,000 yen is the equivalent of $7).
Although the arrests were reported as being Japan’s first related to selling AI-generated porn, in 2021 a man was arrested in the country for allegedly using AI deepfake technology to remove the blurring from censored porn.
Police said the man used the video-clarifying tool TecoGAN to do this to thousands of video files, and made over 13 million yen ($91,000) from the newly-uncensored content. He was charged with copyright violation and displaying obscene images.
In 2020, three men were arrested in Japan and charged with defamation after using AI to create hundreds of deepfake porn videos depicting celebrities.
Authorities in many countries are paying closer attention to AI-generated porn, especially deepfake porn that can be used to make adult content depicting people without their consent. In Japan it’s not currently illegal to create deepfake porn, although such content must adhere to existing censorship rules such as the ban on showing genitals.
UK authorities are cracking down particularly hard on deepfake porn content, focusing on protecting minors. The country is expected to soon become the first to criminalize owning, making or distributing AI tools that are designed to create child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
South Korea is making watching or possessing deepfake porn content illegal, with those convicted of such crimes facing prison terms of up to three years.
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