Japanese book wholesaler admits selling books to Anthropic, raising AI training concerns
A major Japanese book wholesaler has acknowledged selling a large number of books to U.S. artificial intelligence company Anthropic, according to a publishing industry source, fueling concerns among publishers that the titles may have been used to train AI systems, Qazinform News Agency learned from Kyodo.
Nippan Group Holdings Inc., the parent company of Nippon Shuppan Hanbai Inc., recently confirmed the transactions in a response to an inquiry from the Japan Book Publishers Association, the source said.
The association sought clarification after court filings in a U.S. copyright lawsuit revealed that Anthropic had held discussions with "Nippan Japan" regarding bulk book purchases.
In a letter dated Sept. 17, the association asked whether books sold to Anthropic included titles published by its member companies and questioned the wholesaler's stance on selling large quantities of books to overseas customers without first obtaining permission from publishers.
Concerns have grown within Japan's publishing industry that the books may have been destroyed after their spines were cut to facilitate digitization and scanning for AI training purposes.
According to the source, Nippan Group acknowledged that one of its group companies had sold books to Anthropic for approximately one year beginning in December 2024. However, the company said it had not been aware that the books were intended for AI training.
"It would be regrettable if the company had sold books knowing they would be used to train AI," the source said, emphasizing that authors' and publishers' consent should be obtained before books are supplied for such purposes.
Earlier, it was reported that Anthropic had introduced Claude Opus 5.5, the first AI model in its new Claude 5.5 family, offering improved performance, safety, and efficiency at a lower cost.
