Sapporo man held on suspicion of creating sexual deepfakes of female celebrities
Sign up now: Get insights on Asia's fast-moving developments
The 31-year-old man is suspected to have made sexual deepfakes of female celebrities available on two membership-based sites.
PHOTO: THE JAPAN NEWS/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
TOKYO – A 31-year-old man in Japan was arrested on Jan 19 on suspicion of creating sexual deepfakes of female celebrities and sharing them on membership-based websites.
The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) in Japan arrested Mr Tatsuro Chiba, an unemployed man from Nishi ward, Sapporo, on suspicion of posting around a dozen sexual images closely resembling female celebrities and making them available on two membership-based sites between December 2024 and May 2025.
Mr Chiba is suspected of using free image-generating artificial intelligence (AI) software on his home computer and trained the AI on images of actresses and pop idols to create sexual images, the police said.
He is thought to have then posted sample images on X and Instagram, directing those wishing to view them to the two membership-based websites.
The MPD alleged that Mr Chiba created at least 500,000 sexual deepfakes of about 300 people, including actresses and pop idols, that he shared on websites from the summer of 2023. The MPD suspects he illegally obtained about 11 million yen (S$89,400) with these images.
The websites have monetisation models, where users pay to view content and those who post images receive a portion of the fees. Mr Chiba reportedly accepted requests from high-tier plan website members on which celebrities they wanted to see in the fake images.
The MPD believes Mr Chiba used the money he earned for events and other activities featuring his favourite underground pop idol, among other things. THE JAPAN NEWS/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
