The Colabo Saga - The Protagonist

Before we dive into the column, let us recap what we learned from the previous edition and if you haven't checked it yet make sure to go through it prior reading this column. It'll make more sense. In retrospect, we ascertained the background of Colabo, a NPO being run by a certain Yumeno Nito who started it as a hobby project of some sort while she was in college. Now, the organisation finds itself amidst a lot of online hatred since it's founder decided to hit a nerve or two of a millionaire otaku guy who's on a rampage to expose the inner workings and corruption prevalent in the organisation which claims itself to be a shelter project for runaway girls in Japan.In addition to that she has been pretty vocal on bashing the new AV law on online platforms and repeatedly called for it's revisions. Now that we've covered our previous column, let us get started.

To begin with, let’s paint a rough sketch of Yumeno Nito, in an effort to make you guys familiar with the main protagonist of this ongoing affair. Coincidentally, the subject of this column also finds herself at the center of the ongoing Colabo feud. Now, picture yourself as a girl who gets raised in an abusive household wherein the parents don’t tend to get along very well, so you decide to do what most girls your age instinctively pursue, to flee from the abusive household and end up at some beat up internet cafe in a metropolitan like Tokyo to escape the drudgery while keeping up with studies.

The protagonist here, Yumeno Nito, our strong willed feminist and women's rights activist whose aversion for males derives from several terrible incidents that formed the majority of her adolescent years, somehow had a similar experience growing up. Take for instance this particular incident when a foreign reporter asked to interview the girls of Colabo but he was straight up denied citing an eerie excuse that men are prohibited near the vicinity of their base. "Three years ago, I asked to interview the manager of Colabo, Yumeno Nito, after I read about their work in Kabuki-cho in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district. I was denied any interviews that involved speaking directly to the girls at the venue where this group had set up their base. The explanation was that 'men are not allowed'".

On her graduation trip to the Philippines, an unintentional encounter with the realities of local sex work established the groundwork for her later actions as a social worker. I kid you not but I was taken aback by the fact that she is related by blood to a former AKB48 idol, Moeno Nito, who now prefers to go by the name, Moeno.

Moving on, as Yumeno managed to stay afloat with the little that she earned serving tables, having to face JK recruiters every now and then, she somehow managed to enroll herself into a course at the esteemed Meiji Gakuin University based on the basis of her volunteer activities. In May 2011, while volunteering for the earthquake in Tokyo and Ishinomaki City in Miyagi Prefecture as a volunteer, a lateral shift was brewing in her mind when she decided to form a student union, which later morphed into the very organisation that people now know as Colabo.

In 2019, the activist was also accoladed by financial magazine Forbes for her contributions as a social entrepreneur in Japan. That’s quite a big achievement for someone coming from a traumatic background who pledged to work on the pandemic engulfing Japan for more than a decade now, all while saving girls who are going through a similar predicament she went through. Frankly, this could make a for a great narrative for a feminist novel but is it really what it seems to be? Or does this woman who has managed to gain a messiah-like reputation among her peers have a secret lurking behind her back? Initially, even I found it difficult to comprehend but thanks to this feud between Yumeno and this milliionaire otaku guy, I got to uncover a lot of eery details on the Colabo boss. Let's dig in!

Demands To Revise The AV Law

Like we witnessed in the earlier column, Yumeno’s disdain towards the AV industry is pretty evident by her calling out a protest near Shinjuku East Exit Plaza that saw a swarm of activists congregate to bash the law that favored adult manufacturers in the industry.

Exploitation of girls has been a constant topic of debate in these protests. The association demanded immediate action against the new AV law that favored the manufacturers. There were roughly 23 delegate from different private support groups including Minori Kitahara (vice president of Pappus) and Yukiko Tsunoda (lawyer), who called for the rally. Among those present in the rally was Yumeno who demanded an insane alteration to the law, in contrast to what her fellow compatriots like Kazuko Ito were already demanding. In a tweet published from her account on May 10, she called for a rally to raise the spirits of her fellow activists by holding "Emergency Action Against the New AV Law that Benefits the AV Industry" in front of Shinjuku Station on May 22, 2022.

So what exactly made her call out the protest? Strangely, this move by Yumeno was part propaganda and partly motivated by the fact that her demands were not met since she had been participating from the early day of the law's enactment and had been quite vocal of the fact that sexual acts should be banned in these AV shoots subsequent to the enactment of the law but much to her dismay, things didn’t go as planned. While the Diet sided with the demands of safeguarding the exploitation of 18-19 year olds and mandate strict frameworks, Yumeno’s demands likely weren’t met and there is a possibility that it might have made the Colabo boss furious.

Seemingly, the vice president of Pappus had a similar opinion. A part of Hiroshi Nakazatomi being in the protest was that he feared that "if the bill passes, it will be the first law in Japan to actively legalize buying sex for money". His NPO Pappus which provides counseling and support for victims of pornography, said of the bill, "The root of pornography damage stems from the fact that actual sexual acts, including intercourse, are filmed, This bill would allow "legal" contracts involving actual sexual intercourse by "rolling the camera. In 1994, the Tokyo District Court ruled that "a woman who performs in adult films must explicitly act out scenes of sexual intercourse or oral sex with an assigned actor as a subject, and that the filming of such scenes is part of her job. The law also states that a woman appearing in an adult film is a person who seriously harms sexual morality, which should be protected in social community life.”, so they took this line and tweaked it according to their motive to lash out at the Diet and have their demands met.

The bill clearly worked in favor of safeguarding the girls but made no amends to the inclusion of sexual acts in mainstream AV, so Yumeno was quick to overturn her stance and went all in to protest against the law.

“We, the citizens, must speak out against it. Wear something purple on the day of the gathering! Let's also speak out against the new AV law on SNS " I oppose the new AV law! said Yumeno in a statement put forth on her Twitter on May 10 in order to stop the enforcement of laws that legitimize sex trafficking

Meanwhile, in an Imidas column, she cited, “The bill was revised every day in response to requests from these private support groups, but the fundamental part of ‘legalizing sexual intercourse’ has not been revised until now when writing this sentence.” expressing her disdain at the Diet’s decision.

For the unversed, in a column published on Imidas, Yumeno laid out several demands put forth by the private support groups which included the likes of Pappus, Colabo and other similar NPO’s “We asked for the following in the request form. Contracts for the purpose of sexual intercourse and assault and atrocity should be prohibited, and the definition should be changed on that premise. Make the "sexual act video work" of the legal name "sexual act image record". The definition of "sexual activity image record" is a record that includes a video of a person touching or touching the genitals, etc., and the appearance of playing assault , atrocity, etc., etc., and mainly sex on women It refers to something that dominates the target and treats it violently as a sexual object. Image recording of exposed genitals is not allowed, so delete it."

Yumeno Nito expressed her opposition to the new AV law on May 24, 2022, saying that "the state was authorized as a contractual business" and "it was made from the perspective of the AV industry and buyers". She also criticized the Japanese Communist Party, which she had previously supported, for voting in favor of this bill. In a Twitter thread, The Colabo boss lashed out at the male candidates in the party.

In one of several instances the Colabo boss has openly voiced her support for a certain Communist party candidate Saori Ikeuchi who herself has pro-actively campaigned for gender equality and to eradicate sexual exploitation in the AV industry.

Close Ties With Communist Party

In the past there have been several instances when this particular otaku guy behind this whole expose has gone on to state multiple times via his tweets that the Colabo boss might deny of the funding received from different political and corporate alliances, which could possibly include the likes of the Japanese Communist Party but she chooses to be supportive enough to the extent to frequent rallies organized by the political party . While on one hand, Yumeno’s ‘not-for-profit’ organization claims to help save these homeless girls from sexual exploitation and perpetrators, on the flip side it’s openly allowing exploitation of these girls by pursuing them to actively participate in her organization's under-work and party activities (read Japanese Communist Party) without having a proper employment relationship with these girls. I wonder what the Colabo boss has to say about this.

Her close ties with the political party is pretty evident now that she has gone onto openly support it’s candidates and in several occasions utilized the homeless girls that she accommodates to participate in party rallies to further her propaganda, which ultimately ties up to more funding funneled through the party benificiary. In a video posted on the party’s Facebook, Yumeno can be seen addressing the audience regarding the same old trick from her book, ‘exploitation of teenage girls’  to convince the party’s supporters of the gravity of the issue in her bid to garner votes for a certain Saori Ikeuchi, who apparently seems to be a candidate of the Japanese Communist Party for the Diet..

Now, some of you might wonder who the hell is Saori Ikeuchi and how does she even end up getting a mention in this column? Well, to put rest to your curiosity here is why the JCP candidate matters. As per her official site, the former member of the House of Representatives has on record filed these statements under the Achievements in the National Diet section of her site. Addressing the outdated sexual violence laws at the diet building after 110 years are some of her notable achievements in the past. Interestingly, these are the very same issues that align with Yumeno’s propaganda so I guess supporting a candidate from the Japanese Communist Party like Saori Ikeuchi seemed like a no brainer for the 33 year old women’s right activist.

The political leader was inspired by the literatures of yesteryear Japanese writer Takiji Kobayashi who has various works such as The Crab Cannery Ship, in existence. It is believed that the late writer's literature inspired her to join the party at the mere age of 21, "I was impressed by the life of Takiji Kobayashi, a party writer." a statement reads on her Wikipedia page. For the unversed, the 40 year old politician has also penned down a book on Gender Equality, which is apparently free and can be accessed from her official site. I believe, that is quite a clever way to publish your propaganda, huh?

This Twitter thread in particular gives you a gist of how hell bent Yumeno seems to get Saori back to the Diet and how big a deal it is for for the 33 year old activist. Direct access to influence party decisions and further her propaganda of homeless girls being exploited in the streets of Tokyo all while she funnels money for her personal benefits in the guise of helping these distressed girls. This could be witnessed by how a couple feminist groups that the otaku guy, Himasora talks of in his revelations influenced a vote to their favor to pass the new law by pocketing the few important Diet members at their disposal (we'll talk about that in a future column). Trust me, it is more than the eyes could see. To summarize, the whole point of the thread, in her own words is to save girls, who don’t have an address, or right to vote from the predatory men roaming around in the streets of Tokyo

The connection is pretty prevalent now, so much so that JCP put up a statement on it’s official site bashing any such allegations against Yumeno and requests to ‘stop slandering the NPO on accounts of misinformation''. I mean, if she was a political candidate for the party, it would have been digestible to put a statement, but in defense of a mere party supporter to stop her from getting online hatred, kind of puts the nail to the coffin and reassures my believe that there is certainly something fishy among the parties involved. This certainly goes way deeper than one could fathom, By now, the affiliation could be for a greater goal wherein JCP could be using the activist for one of it’s selfish goals to wipe strand off the US military from the Okinawan island in disguise of protests in the memory of comfort women who were exploited during the war.

Futenma Base Protest Fiasco

On record Yumeno has stated her disdain towards the US military stationed on Okinawa. Frequently participating in anti-US protests or those dedicated to justice for comfort women. Her appeal has skyrocketed as a result of this. There have been claims that the 32-year-old activist has used these 'sheltered girls' to further her propaganda by having them participate in the protest on many occasions. Just one of her ways to make her point stronger. 

The 32 year old social activist has stated that her movement has been highly influenced by the victims of the "comfort women" system, and she has also linked the comfort women issue to the issue of sex work among high school girls, saying, "The situation that girls are in today, comfort women, and racism are all connected". In a lecture to high school students, she stated, "During the war, Japan created comfort stations as a national policy to boost the morale of soldiers, satisfy their needs, and unify the army, and brought in women from Asia and Okinawa as Japanese military comfort women".

For the unversed, Hiroyuki Nishimura, aka Hiroyuki, the founder of 2channel, referenced in a tweet that Colabo registered itself as a sponsor in August 2022 of a Korean former comfort women support group and a perhaps have also funded the construction of the German comfort women statue.

Yumeno herself reported on Twitter in August 2022 that she had participated in South Korea’s “Wednesday demonstration (Wednesday rally)” called 'National Action to Solve the Problem of Japanese Military Comfort Women'. Ms. Nito is also participating in the base protest activities in Henoko, Okinawa Prefecture. Is it possible to separate political activities from Colabo, which has been pointed out for poor accounting while receiving public funds? It seems hard to digest.

According to an Echo News column, Nito is now suspected of major human rights violations against the females who live in the accommodations Nito provides. It has come to my attention that she has used several girls, most likely teenage girls, who could not understand the intricate issues by manipulating them to join the Okinawan anti-US base protest movement under the premise of giving them with housing. The column further stated that Yumeno 'mobilized'  teenage girls and transferred them from Tokyo to Okinawa to damage the US Henoko Base development. Though no such arrests were made, the entire protest was very upsetting for Yumeno, with the girls being physically transported by the Japanese Riot Police

To bring this to our readers' attention, inciting these girls to join protests is unquestionably a violation of their human rights and can be considered a criminal offence. In Colabo's instance, they are living in the group flat Nito refers to as "shelter," where the ringmaster (read Yumeno) tells them what to do (or not do). As a result, they had little opportunity to oppose Nito's suggestion of a sabotage campaign trip.

The reports also claims that at least one of the girl suffered a mental condition and more than half of them come from dysfunctional families. Yumeno’s intention of using these girls to fulfill her political motives could end up being fatal for these runaway girls. It is highly possible that some of them might end up in arrests, charged under law and be apprehended and serve considerable time in a facility. Although there have been no reports of arrest yet, under Yumeno's watch, it is highly possible they may join the protests again. Earlier, Yumeno, who planned the sabotage was dealt by the riot police.

She even criticized Hiroyuki, the founder of 2chan in a tweet who had earlier made some derogatory remarks on the islanders. The adult board founder mocked the islanders' grammar, claiming that "Okinawans can't even speak proper Japanese," prompting the activist to travel to the island to protest, as if criticizing his words wasn't enough to relieve herself. I'm curious as to why Yumeno and other feminists are so drawn to protests... What is the point? what good comes out of it anyway? Or has it more to do with her playing the poster girl for the Communist party, raising women’s rights issues all over Japan to be in the good books of the politically inclined and secure funding for her one of many endeavors which we will go further in detail in the upcoming column.