Tsuburaya Productions Wins Lawsuit Confirming Non-Existence of 

Overseas Exploitation Rights Under the “1976 Document”

Tsuburaya Productions Co., Ltd. 

We (Headquarters: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, President: Masayuki Nagatake) hereby announce that, on May 14, 2026, the Tokyo District Court handed down a judgment fully upholding our claims (hereinafter the “Judgment”) in a lawsuit we filed against UM Corporation (hereinafter “UMC”) seeking confirmation of the non-existence of overseas exploitation rights for the early Ultraman series (hereinafter the “Classic Ultraman Series”). 

• Background of the Lawsuit 

For over a quarter of a century, we have been compelled to contest the overseas exploitation rights for the Classic Ultraman Series. These rights were claimed to have been granted under the so-called “1976 Document” (hereinafter the “1976 Document”), which the late Mr. Sompote Saengduenchai (hereinafter “Mr. Sompote”), a Thai businessman, claimed to have entered into with us in 1976, and which UMC subsequently claimed to have succeeded to. 

We have consistently maintained that the 1976 Document is a forgery.  Based on handwriting analysis and other evidence, both the Supreme Court of Thailand (2008) and the U.S. Federal Court (2018) have previously issued judicial rulings concluding that the document was indeed a forgery. In the U.S. litigation, the jury unanimously found the document to be forged. This conclusion was supported by the highly suspicious fact that Mr. Sompote concealed the document’s existence for twenty years, only disclosing it in 1996, one year after the passing of Noboru Tsuburaya, who was identified as the signatory for our company. Regrettably, however, due to circumstances in past lawsuits in Japan where the 1976 Document was not determined to be a forgery, UMC and its affiliates continued to rely on the document to pursue business activities and unauthorized acts in certain overseas regions. 

In order to put an end to UMC’s unauthorized activities, we issued a notice of termination of the 1976 Document to UMC and other relevant parties on July 10, 2014. This notice was intended to terminate the contract, on the premise that even if the contract were valid, prospectively as a contract of indefinite duration. On March 5, 2024, we filed a new lawsuit seeking confirmation that such termination was valid and that UMC holds no overseas exploitation rights in the Classic Ultraman Series thereafter. 

• Regarding the Judgment 

In the Judgment, the Tokyo District Court confirmed that the notice of termination we issued on July 10, 2014, is valid and that the contract under the 1976 Document had been lawfully terminated. Consequently, the Court confirmed that UMC does not have any rights to exploit the Classic Ultraman Series works outside of Japan. 

• Future Business Development 

This Judgment firmly vindicates the legitimacy of our long-standing position regarding the 1976 Document. We remain fully committed to driving global expansion and further development of the “Ultraman Series” moving forward. 

We would like to express our deepest gratitude to our business partners, stakeholders, and all Ultraman fans worldwide for their continued patronage and support.