Nippan Group says Nippan IPS did not know books were for AI training

When the contract to sell print books and responsibility for AI training are split, on what terms can a printer accept the processing work?

According to Jiji Press, Nippan Group Holdings said Nippan IPS sold books to US-based Anthropic from December 2024 through December 2025. The response itself has not been published. Meanwhile, the cutting, scanning and optical character recognition documented in US court records describe Project Panama as a whole; it cannot be confirmed whether books supplied through Nippan underwent those steps.

Gathered with AI. Thought through on the shop floor. Written for the future of print.

BPJ WIRE: stories selected and drafted by the BPJ desk from world news, fact-checked against the source ledger — published alongside the editor's own picks.

Translated from Japanese by AI. The Japanese original is authoritative.

Nippan Group says Nippan IPS did not know books were for AI training

Anthropic’s internal records show a closed deal with “Nippan Japan.” The fully executed contract date, when both parties had signed, was November 21, 2024. The counterparty is listed as “Nippan Japan.”

Nippan Group Holdings responded to the Japan Book Publishers Association. According to Jiji Press, it explained that Nippan IPS had not understood the books it sold to be intended for artificial intelligence training. What is publicly available is the content of the respo…

The rest is for members

Read the full article. Our feature reports also carry an archive-grade one-page brief (BPJ VISUAL BRIEF) — every figure with its source.

$3 / month

・Full text of every issue, including the archive

・Archive-grade one-page briefs on feature reports — every figure with its source

・Early access to new issues

・Cancel anytime

Become a member

Already a member? Log in

Sources

Beyond Printing Journal — read the world through print, and print the future.

← All issues