Japan’s largest newspaper is suing Perplexity, accusing the AI search startup of copying more than 119,000 articles to train and power its chatbot. Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings said it filed the claim on August 7 in Tokyo District Court, seeking about ¥2.17bn ($15m) in damages and an injunction to stop Perplexity from reproducing or distributing its content.
The suit, brought by three Yomiuri corporate entities in Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka, alleges that Perplexity servers accessed the paper’s site between February and June to harvest articles later used in responses to user queries. The company argues this infringes reproduction and public-transmission rights under Japanese copyright law.
Jiji Press, via Nippon.com, reported the paper is also concerned that “zero-click” answers reduce site visits and threaten the business model that supports its journalism.
Under a 2018 amendment to Japan’s Copyright Act, reproductions for machine learning and data analysis can be made without prior authorisation, but only if they do not “unreasonably prejudice” rights holders. Legal analysts say the Yomiuri case will be an early test of how far that exception extends.
The action is also tied to web-security claims. Cloudflare has alleged that Perplexity used undeclared crawlers which masked their identity and evaded robots.txt and firewall rules. The company said it removed Perplexity from its verified bot list and updated security rules, with its findings likely to feature in court if Yomiuri pursues that argument.
Perplexity has grown rapidly in the AI search market, with Bloomberg reporting its valuation reached about $9bn in late 2024. It has millions of users and runs subscription and revenue-sharing programmes with publishers.
The lawsuit is the first brought by a major Japanese publisher against an AI company. Its outcome could influence how the 2018 copyright exceptions are interpreted, and whether courts demand clearer consent or compensation mechanisms for large-scale crawling that damages news organisations’ commercial interests.
Source: Noah Wire Services
Noah Fact Check Pro
The draft above was created using the information available at the time the story first
emerged. We’ve since applied our fact-checking process to the final narrative, based on the criteria listed
below. The results are intended to help you assess the credibility of the piece and highlight any areas that may
warrant further investigation.
Freshness check
Score:
10
Notes:
The narrative is fresh, with the earliest known publication date being August 8, 2025. No earlier versions with different figures, dates, or quotes were found. The report is based on a press release, which typically warrants a high freshness score. No discrepancies or recycled content were identified.
Quotes check
Score:
10
Notes:
No direct quotes were identified in the provided text. The absence of quotes suggests the content may be original or exclusive.
Source reliability
Score:
8
Notes:
The narrative originates from Svaboda.org, a reputable news outlet. However, the article is in Belarusian, which may limit accessibility for some readers.
Plausability check
Score:
10
Notes:
The claims made in the narrative are plausible and align with reports from other reputable sources, such as The Asahi Shimbun and Nippon.com. The language and tone are consistent with typical news reporting.
Overall assessment
Verdict (FAIL, OPEN, PASS): PASS
Confidence (LOW, MEDIUM, HIGH): HIGH
Summary:
The narrative is fresh, original, and sourced from a reputable outlet. The claims are plausible and consistent with other reports. No significant issues were identified, leading to a high confidence in the assessment.
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