Matt Schley
April 10, 2025 
Shinji Sugimura, a member of Japan’s House of Representatives who hails from the Constitutional Democratic Party, has called for Japan’s voice actors to be designated Living National Treasures.
Sugimura, who calls himself a “non-otaku,” isn’t coming at this from the point of view of a fan. Rather, he’s concerned about working conditions for voice actors, who often face poor working conditions, harassment and, lately, concerns about their voices being used to train generative AI.
Japan’s Daily Shincho quotes Sugimura:
Before I became a member of the Diet, I worked in television program production and had opportunities to come into contact with voice actors. Although voice actors have the image of filling in the voices of anime characters, their work is very diverse. Some narrate TV shows, dub movies, and even work as idols. I wanted to see more light shed on the work of these talented people and decided to do such work when I became a member of the Diet.
The representative formally introduced a “Letter of Inquiry on the Possibility of Designating Voice Actors as Important Intangible Cultural Properties, etc.” this January. He says if he had to choose the very first person to receive the designation, it would be Masako Nozawa, the veteran voice actor best known as the voice of Goku from Dragon Ball.
Source: Daily Shincho
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