# Nippan IPS Acknowledges Selling Japanese Books to Anthropic

By Riza Dagoc

Canonical URL: https://www.tokenpost.com/news/regulation/27452
Published: 2026-10-07T13:53:50.000Z
Updated: 2026-10-07T13:53:50.000Z
Section: Regulation

> The sales ran from December 2024 through December 2025, and the contracts did not specify that the books could be used for AI training.

Nippan IPS acknowledged selling Japanese books to Anthropic from December 2024 through December 2025, including copyrighted works from publishers belonging to the Japan Book Publishers Association.

The contracts did not specify that the books could be used for AI training. The association, which has about 380 members, sent Nippan IPS a written inquiry on Sept. 17 seeking details about the transactions.

The issue surfaced in a U.S. class-action copyright lawsuit brought by authors against Anthropic. The authors allege that Anthropic digitized physical books without authorization and used them to train its AI models.

Court filings in the case show large purchases of books from Asia and list a buyer named “Nippan Japan.” The filings do not establish that the buyer was Nippan IPS.

The transactions raise an unresolved question for publishers and rights holders: whether physical books sold to an AI company can be scanned and converted into training material without additional approval.

Nippan IPS did not disclose the total number of books sold or identify the publishers and titles involved. The company said it would respond separately if individual publishers contact it about the transactions.