北村社長（President Kitamura）

花城CEO（CEO Hanashiro）

NTT West has launched “VOICENCE,” a voice AI business that protects the vocal rights of voice actors, actors, artists, comedians, and other performers, and enhances the value of their voices. To advance the business with agility, the company has established the “VOICENCE Company,” an independent internal organization (led by Takashi Hanashiro, business manager and CEO).
NTT West President Ryota Kitamura explained, “With advances in AI and other technologies, new value is being created in the voice itself, expanding the possibilities for transcending language barriers. At the same time, the unauthorized use of voices and the spread of fake audio have become social issues, raising questions about how to protect and utilize voices. In light of these changes, we are building a trusted voice platform. We launched VOICENCE to create new cultures and industries.”
This is the first attempt by NTT West to launch an independent internal organization.
“In order to respond flexibly and promptly to evolving markets and technologies and to speedily collaborate with a variety of partners, including IP holders, we are acting as an independent social company, similar to a subsidiary, and boldly delegating authority to managers and teams,” said President Kitamura.

VOICENCE Company CEO Takashi Hanashiro said, “VOICENCE is voice infrastructure. Based on the consent and contracts of the voice owners, we use reliable technology to protect the rights of voices and utilize them correctly to benefit society.”
Specifically, the company will build a “VOICENCE Platform” and develop a content production business. It will provide audio IP rights management functions to performers and offer audio content planning and production functions to client companies that use voice IP.
CEO Hanashiro explained, “VOICENCE is more than just a production company. It will be a hub that connects IP holders, businesses, and consumers. By paying fair licensing fees to voice owners, companies can use AI voices with peace of mind. Consumers can enjoy their favorite voices whenever they want, without worry.”
One of the VOICENCE platform’s technological features is its “trust technology” for authenticity verification.
Using blockchain to verify authenticity, it proves that the AI ​​voice was generated from the performer’s own voice. Furthermore, the scope of use based on the contract is recorded and provided as usage verification data. This protects the rights of the voice by creating an environment in which genuine AI-generated voices can be distinguished from unauthorized or fake voices, ensuring that they are genuine and authorized by the performer.
Another feature is its voice processing technology.
CEO Hanashiro states, “Not only do we protect the voice, we also evolve the expressive power of the voice.”
For example, it can transform the speaker’s impression and tone, enabling richer expression. Furthermore, multilingual synthesis technology can convert the voice into multiple languages ​​while preserving the original voice tone. Currently, Japanese, English, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, and French are supported.
VOICENCE Company aims to achieve annual sales of 1 billion yen in its third year while creating a “voice economic sphere.” The company aims to grow the business to 10 billion yen in sales in the fifth year and to 100 billion yen for the entire NTT Group in 10 years.
CEO Hanashiro said, “To achieve our goal, we will actively pursue global expansion over the first three years”.

※Translating Japanese articles into English with AI