The Colabo Saga - The Big Reveal Volume 3

I hope you guys are enjoying the ongoing series, Colabo Saga as much as I'm excited to bring you these columns every other month, but before we begin with the final part of The Big Reveal, let us recap a bit on what we learned in the previous two columns. For the unversed, those were quite interesting columns where we divulged into the nitty gritty of Colabo's illegitimate activities. If you haven't read through them yet, I recommend you do. Nevertheless, we learnt that how Yumeno's Colabo had been artificially inflating the meal costs that it had been providing to it's sheltered girls, how it had been accommodating these girls in cramped apartments and collecting welfare in their names. Even more surprising is the fact that it puts these girls to work on its many different programs including participating in Colabo sponsored protests and political rallies to defame the opposition parties.

Then there is this insurance settlement scheme where it kickbacks the money spent on the girls medication through donations & commissions it receives from the patrons and the government. Honestly, one would keep slipping into this rabbit hole of Colabo's, given how they've allegedly tried every trick in the book to exploit the taxpayers money but there's more to it and I break it down in this final part of The Big Reveal. I promise it'll have you on the edge of your seat when you read through the layers of revelations. So, without further ado, let us begin!

A rough look at the accounting will tell you that food expenses are the ones that have been manipulated the most and it’s hard coming to terms with the meals served, Let us refer to the above quote from Himasora where he cites that "Yumeno Nito, the president of Colabo, said that 1,535 meals were lunch for the shelter”. The thing to note here, is that this is something that even the NPO’s cooking staff mentioned in Colabo's official 10th anniversary book, and it mentions twice a week. Himasora continues, "Twice a week means about 104 times a year. In fact, the frequency of posting lunch photos on Colabo's official Facebook page is less than twice a week, and there are days when no photos are posted”. As per Colabo’s activity report, 10 people stayed at the NPO provided accommodation for a total of 2076 nights, however if they stayed a year long, the math would come around at 3650 nights for a total of 10 occupants. In that case, the average comes around 5.7 girls, if we take into account a full year stay. Now, if one multiplies that by 104 (for the twice-weekly lunch meetings) they’d find it to be approx 592 meals, which is 943 meals short of 1535 meals that Colabo’s boss claims of.

So, how does the NPO cover up for the missing meals, you ask? Well, the missing 943 meals is almost equal to the 947 bus cafe users that Colabo’s accounting department very cleverly accommodates under meal expenses which are basically takeaways. If one counts the meals of the bus cafe users by giving them at least a snack or juice, and assume that the number of meals from the shelter and bus cafe are combined, it would be exactly 1535 meals, as per Himasora's assumption. So, now you see how they manipulate the accounts and channel the fund for it’s own personal motives rather than using it for actually feeding the girls at those shelters.

A screengrab from Colabo's Activity Report showing 947 bus cafe users that the NPO falsely claims under meal expenses

Himasora further cites Yumeno’s statement in which she said, “I go to the girls shelter (shared house) only once a month to make rounds. When I go there everytime, I see moldy cups and other things left in the sink and scream”. One thing to note here is that the lunch meetings are held at Colabo's office, since the cook is not going to the shelters to cook for the occupants but rather calls the girls together and serves them at a common place, there must be a couple of girls who do not participate for meals at times, so the actual number must be a little flawed to what Yumeno has been claiming.

Another screengrab from the Activity Report wherein the NPO's cooking staff claims that she cooks twice a week for the girls

Moreover, there have been reports of a CPA auditing Colabo's financial report and discrepancies have been found to be prevalent in support expenses, commuting expenses, travel expenses, depreciation expenses and donations and so on. Somehow, it is impossible to know immediately if there is any irregularity without an actual audit, but it is believed that the disclosed figures alone are this suspicious.

He goes on to admit that, "I still don't get many rebuttals, and all I get is that it's terrible that you are pursuing a welfare program that is doing good things but is It is okay to spend money on welfare projects with no checks and no accounting? The existence of various suspicions is completely different from what kind of business Colabo is engaged in, and as long as public money is involved, I think Colabo has an obligation to dispel the suspicions. With so many allegations being made, I don't think they can just sit back and take it easy."

If one has read previous parts from this ongoing story, it is a very well known fact that the Colabo boss is a supporter of the Communist Party to an extent that she goes to rallies in support of the Communist Party and lends vehicles for the same, although I can’t vouch for the same about her organisation.

Screengrabs comparing how the NPO founder's income had taken a sudden spike within a year

On reviewing the activity reports for 2020 and 2021 of the organization headed by Yumeno, one is bound to have a lot of questions about it. Consider that the commuting expenses have not increased by 10% due to the pandemic, it has jumped from 410,000 to 440,000 in a year, but her salary has taken a massive jump by 6 million in a year i.e. 12 million to 18 million. On top of this, the accumulated profit was 250 million yen for the financial year and 100 million yen from the that is mentioned to be reserved for staff labor cost. Here, Himasora speculates that personnel expenses can run at 12 million a year under an organization like Colabo’s and even if they were to increase the number of staffs, it might just be a couple million more, but they somehow are able to save a whooping 100 million? That's utterly strange, isn't it? Given that, Colabo only hired for two types of positions from 2019 to 2022. One is an accountant and the other is a secretary who does all the administrative and back-office work. Why is it that there were no job openings for the contracting business, which is expanding to the point of doubling sales from 2020 to 2021? I wonder why there were no job openings for that business. Some mysterious expenses that give way to the discussion remains Colabo’s illicit sponsorship activities. For instance, take this as an example, Colabo was the main organizer of the "We Were Bought" exhibition, which had sold around the country, and was largely one of the main ways for Colabo to gather supporters and advertise.

Support expenses of the NPO also drastically jumped twofold within a year

However, what most don’t know that this exhibition was not organized by Colabo, but by it's subsidiary NPO known as Tsubomi that supports a group of girls. The support expenses were 14.61 million yen in FY2020 to 25.78 million yen in FY2021. School lunch expenses are also included. Colabo is a subcontractor for the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's project to support female victims. This is clearly stated in the activity report.

Also, if you look at a video of the "Creepy Uncle" series that Yumeno, has included in her activity report as part of Colabo's activities, you will see that she has Colabo members organize a leafleting campaign for JCP candidate, Saori Ikeuchi. In this video, she also says that it is impossible for an LDP member to be elected to the LDP, and that she wants the LDP candidate in the next election to fail. Isn't it logically strange that this is being done by someone who has written a written pledge that political activities should not be her main purpose?

There have been speculations in what basis does the NPO accommodate the girls being rescued in the past and it seems as if Himasora has been finally able to crack the case regarding the share house (rescue shelter) run by Yumeno’s Colabo. For the unversed, Colabo nominally operates a shared house of 15 rooms in 5 properties which comes down to 3 room per property. It is mandatory for each person on welfare to have a private room, so if there are three people living together, they should have three bedrooms. You might be wondering, so what’s exactly the deal?

I want you to look at this post from the pandemic that was shared on Colabo’s official Facebook that cites, "After a few days of maintenance work on the new medium- to long-term shelter, some members moved into their new properties. The items received from the supporters were unpacked and set up. The girls also helped. When the "We Were Bought" exhibition project started, I met a member of the team when I was in junior high school who contacted me and said she wanted to participate to the bus café through the voice of the voice team. This brings the total number of mid- to long-term shelters in Colabo to five properties, with a combined capacity of 15 people (10 at the Corona Disaster)". Perhaps, Himasora has an interesting take on this, "I mean, even if it's the Corona disaster, if it's a 3-bedroom property with private rooms for each, why can't they just stay in their own private rooms, and there's no need to reduce the capacity of one property to 2 people". Indeed true, any sane person will agree to the fact that there is no need to reduce the capacity if it's a three-bedroom apartment and each has a private room of their own but somehow the number of occupants were reduced. The fraud gets more evident when one starts to check the layout in the drawing. According to Himasora, the share house run by Colabo is a similarly laid out property.

Actual layout of Colabo's sheltered homes rather than what Yumeno had claimed in the past

It’s easy to figure out how this would substantially reduce the capacity to two people per shelter during the pandemic. Apparently, excluding the kitchen in the common area, there are only two rooms that can be made into private rooms, i.e. the living room and the bedroom, so in reality Colabo has been defrauding the government of providing funds for 3LDK accommodations whereas they’ve been accommodating these girls in a 1LDK all this while. No wonder why those rooms in the pictures look super cramped.

Here’s what Himasora had to say about the same, "It's true that I've looked at a lot of different properties when I moved here, but the living room of a 3LDK is at least twice as large as this one, and this is the living room of a 1LDK. I've always seen pictures of Colabo’s share houses with very small living rooms, so I thought for sure it wouldn't be a 3LDK share house. I'm glad I finally got an answer to that question”.

On top of that they’ve very casually mentioned it in the activity report as 'three private rooms with locks' which seems to be a total lie and accounts for fraudulent practices. What’s even more surprising is the fact that when Himasora reached out to one of the concerned individuals from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to ask him regarding the matter, he simply denied of seeing a share house, ever. “I tried to ask the person in charge of the TMG how many rooms are in the share house. Then he said he had never been to see one. That's why I don't know (of Colabo’s housing scheme), I can't help but laugh”.

Although now removed, ‘Colabo Japan’ is on the list of sponsors in the August 2022 patrons list published by the Korean former comfort women support group, Women & War aka Justice Federation. In addition to that, the NPO was also specified as one of the patrons of the German comfort women statue. So what exactly does it mean for an organization that receives funds from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (basically, taxpayers money) to be the in the patron list of a Korean former comfort women group and a German comfort women statue. Especially, for an organization that remains steadfast on it’s anti-Japan stance?

Here's an instance from the past when 4chan founder Hiroyuki called out the NPO's illegitimate practices on X, "Tens of millions of Tokyo taxpayers' money is being paid by Colabo, which appears to have paid for a Korean former comfort women support group and the construction of a comfort women statue in Germany. If the organizations are run by donations, they can do whatever they want. However, there are citizens of Tokyo who think differently, and I don't think it's right to throw taxpayers' money into their hands".

As I mentioned earlier in a column, It is believed that when Yumeno participated in the demonstration of the Justice Federation in Seoul on August 31, the donation was likely made on that occasion. If at all, it were Yumeno’s personal intention or donations were made from her own pocket, it would still be understandable, but it comes under scrutiny when the donation is made on behalf of her organization, Colabo, which receives donations from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, to give money to the Justice Federation, which has an anti-Japan stance and demands an apology and compensation from the Japanese government, or to the comfort women statue in Germany.

Also, for a while let’s just put this assumption aside that Colabo’s donation to Korea's Justice Federation/ Germany's comfort women statue is most likely taxpayer money. However, according to Colabo's website, they are collected for the group’s support activities for teenage girls and on record, there has been no mention whatsoever on the group’s website supporting former comfort women support groups and the installation of comfort women statues in South Korea. I wonder, what Yumeno has to say about this?

Colabo boss Yumeno posing with the Comfort Women Statue that it sponsored in August 2022

I personally think that Colabo's philosophy of supporting female victims is an appreciative effort but not at the cost of laundering the taxpayers money to support group’s with an anti-Japanese stance. It’d be better for the group to conduct its activities independently from foreign influences like these Korean comfort women support groups and indulging in activities to install comfort women statues, etc. One could however digest the fact that these are Colabo's official activities, if they had clearly stated it in its activities column and then it should be judged whether it is an appropriate organization to be commissioned by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. Nevertheless, it's a wrap for the time being. Watch out for the final edition to this ongoing series when it drops, next month! Meanwhile, check out the previous editions below.

Part 1: The Colabo Saga - A Storm Is Brewing!

Part 2: The Colabo Saga - The Protagonist

Part 3: The Colabo Saga - The Lone Whistleblower

Part 4: The Colabo Saga - The Big Reveal Volume 1

Part 5: The Colabo Saga - The Big Reveal Volume 2