Japanese firm confirms it sold books to Anthropic

Nippan Group Holdings, a Japanese book wholesaler, has confirmed that it had sold books to U.S. artificial intelligence firm Anthropic, sources familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

In a letter addressed to the Japan Book Publishers Association, an industry group, Nippan Group said that Nippan IPS, a subsidiary that sells Japanese books overseas, concluded a deal with Anthropic in November 2024 and sold books to it between December that year and last December, according to the sources.

Before striking the deal, Nippan IPS asked about the purpose of the book purchases, the letter said. But Nippan Group said that the unit had not been aware that Anthropic’s purchases were for AI learning, according to the letter.

Nippan Group did not disclose how many books were sold or the total purchase amount, while planning to answer inquiries from publishers. The association shared the letter from Nippan Group with some 380 member publishers.

An internal document from Anthropic, disclosed in a U.S. lawsuit, showed that the company entered into a deal with “Nippan Japan” as part of its Project Panama, which aims to scan books from all over the world.