Colabo is a Japan-based non-profit organisation supporting young women and girls, including those who have suffered abuse or sexual exploitation.

Since 2011, we have sustained the following activities, supporting over 10,000 girls to date.

Our Mission Statement

We are working to create a society in which all girls have clothing, food, shelter, and people they can rely on.
A society in which girls in trouble do not find themselves being exploited or exposed to violence.

• Our Vision: A society where girls do not face exploitation or violence
• Our Mission: Ensuring every girl has access to necessities of life and meaningful relationships
• Our Value: Walking alongside the girls

Reaching Out to Girls in Distress

Night-time outreach

locating and engaging girls wandering the streets to establish connections

Hosting free night cafés for teenage girls 《Tsubomi Cafe》

providing rest, meals, charging points, counselling, and supplies/clothing in entertainment districts

Tsubomi Cafe is a bus that has been renovated into a free cafe and resource center for teenage girls.

Learn more about Tsubomi Cafe (Japanese only)

　

Counselling services and accompaniment support

for medical/legal assistance and liaison with authorities

We provide consultation services for girls we meet on the street or who reach out to us via phone or email.

Provide Basic Necessities (Support, Food, Showers, Clothing, etc.)

Meals

Many of these girls do not have consistent access to food, and/or always eat alone.We believe that more than just food, having company and someone to talk to at meals is central to helping girls build confidence, trust others, and start rebuilding their lives. For this reason, we spend time with girls around meals, cooking and chatting, and thereby helping restore normalcy to their lives.

Provide Basic Necessities

We distribute donated packaged food, clothes, school supplies, menstrual products, etc. to girls in need.

Consultations and Support

When appropriate we refer girls to outside resources, accompanying them whenever possible.These outside resources include lawyers, child support services, medical services, government offices, law enforcement agencies, schools, etc.

Shelter

Temporary Shelter

Protection and accommodation support in emergency shelters

We provide temporary shelter for girls who are unwilling or unable to go home, especially victims of physical and sexual violence. Shelter services include providing a place to sleep at night, but the space is also available for girls to shower, do laundry, cook, study, etc.
→ Click here to support our shelters!

Mid- to Long-term Shelter

Providing housing in medium/long-term shelters or apartments, alongside life support and employment assistance

With the goal of helping girls become independent and self-sufficient we provide mid- to long-term shelters. While living in these shelters girls may attend school, build job skills, or look for work. Girls have their own room with a lock, and shared access to a kitchen, living room, shower, etc. Residents are provided with food, and all rooms are furnished. Rent is free for the first three months, and 30,000 yen per month thereafter (approximately USD 270), with the goal of helping girls reestablish their lives and become financially independent in the long term. (When necessary, rent may be waived even after the first three months.)

　

Tsubomi: A Support Group for Girls

Self-help group activities led by survivors, and the exhibition ‘We Were “Bought”’ exposing child sexual exploitation realities

A support for girls from age ten through their teens, Tsubomi provides a space for girls to meet others who have gone through the same trauma, and to build support networks with one another through shared activities.
→Learn more about Tsubomi (Japanese only)

　　

Public Awareness Efforts

Lectures, supporter training workshops, and policy advocacy

→Learn more about our lecture series (Japanese only)

Educational Tours of Tokyo’s Nightlife Underworld

We give educational tours of the underworld of Tokyo’s nightlife, highlighting how middle and high school girls are living on the streets, and the dangers present to them. Attendees include educators, social welfare officials, law enforcement officials, etc.
→Learn more about our educational tours of Tokyo’s nightlife (Japanese only)

Others

International solidarity initiatives to resolve sex trade issues

Emergency support for girls and women in disaster-affected areas

as sex traffickers infiltrate disaster zones

Message from the representative

As a teenager, a home with domestic violence was not a place to be in peace. Having dropped out of school and being unable to return home, we would wander the streets, approached only by sex trade operators or buyers. Without any adults to rely on, we were desperate to get what we could eat and where to sleep for the day. Sometimes we’d lay cardboard on a building’s rooftop to see out the night. To girls like us, sex buyers and traffickers would come up with questions like, “How much?”, “Looking for work?”, “Have you eaten?” and then broker us into sex trade.

At the time, I believed that being seen solely as an object of sexual consumption meant “it was my own fault” and “I only have that kind of value.” However, when I visited the Philippines at the age of 18 and saw girls being “sold” in a brothel for Japanese and Japanese men who came to buy them, I realised that this was not a personal issue, but a societal one. In order to change this situation, I went to university to learn about the structure of society. It was during my student years, in 2011, that I began Colabo’s activities.

Currently in Japan, sexual exploitation of isolated and impoverished women is becoming increasingly severe, especially among teenage girls. In our society, the issue of such sexual exploitation is seen as a problem of women’s delinquency rather than a societal issue, resulting in a lack of support system for women who are seeking to leave sex trade. The law also states that women who trade sex are subject to punishment, but there are no penalties for the act of purchasing sex. For this reason, sex buyers from all over the world gather in Kabukichō , Shinjuku – where Colabo is based. To change the status quo, solidarity from the international community is critical.

On top of that, Japan lacks support centres for girls and women who have experienced sexual exploitation, and there is no Women’s Human Rights Centre. Backlash against women’s human rights movement has been intense, and Colabo is also under harsh attack. This makes many women’s groups fear to tackle the issue of sexual exploitation.

To change this situation, we have launched a fundraising campaign to build a Women’ Human Rights Centre.

The Women’s Human Rights Center will be built in Kabukichō , Shinjuku, the city where sexual exploitation is most severe in Japan, and will create a base for activities that support women who are in the midst of sexual exploitation. Construction costs 1 billion yen ($6.7 million).

Colabo receives no public funding and operates solely through donations from citizens. We are calling for support from all over the world with the aim of building the centre in 2030. We need your support.

Please Support the Construction of the Women’s Human Rights Centre.

Yumeno Nito

Founder & Representative, Sexual Exploitation Victims Support Center Colabo

Donation can be made here.

Representative’s background is here.

List of publications

2023.09.18　 Frontline Women’s Fund : World Day Against Trafficking in Persons: Colabo’s Fight Against Sex TraffickingColabo’s Fights against Sexual Exploitation and Misogyny in Japan Today

2023.09.18　 website『KYEOL』 : Colabo’s Fights against Sexual Exploitation and Misogyny in Japan Today

2023.05.16　 website『unseen-japan』 : Colabo, Other Japan Women’s Groups Enduring Targeted Harassment

2022.02.23    The Mainichi : New law to support women in Japan sought after 66 years of no legal updates

2020.12.18 　The Asahi Shimbun : Young woman tries to cope after life of sexual exploitation

2020.04.28　The Asahi Shimbun : LDP lawmakers accused of harassing abused teenage girls

2020.04.06　THE JAPAN TIMES : Curbs to stem COVID-19 in Japan may fuel domestic violence and abuse

2019.06.15　The Guardian : Schoolgirls for sale: why Tokyo struggles to stop the ‘JK business’

2019               Forbes : 30 Under 30 – Asia – Social Entrepreneurs (2019)

2018.12.30　THE JAPAN TIMES : Tokyo ‘bus cafe,’ a safe haven from sexual exploitation for troubled young girls

2018.10.27　KYODO NEWS : Pink bus offers shelter to vulnerable girls in Tokyo nightspots

2018.10.7  　The Asahi Shimbun : Pink bus to help schoolgirls from falling victim to sex industry

2018.10.7  　Fongs For Japan : Colabo: Serving When No One is Watching

2016.8.17  　THE JAPAN TIMES : Tokyo exhibition focuses on plight of sexually exploited girls

2015.7.30  　VICE NEWS : Inside a Tokyo JK Cafe (Excerpt from ‘Schoolgirls for Sale’)

2015.6.23       The Courier Mail : Japan schoolgirl documentary: walking dates front for prostitution

2015.05.22　THE JAPAN TIMES :Activist slams indifference to sexual exploitation of girls in ‘JK’ industry

2014.12.22　The Asahi Shimbun : INTERVIEW/ Yumeno Nito: Havens needed for schoolgirls in sleazy ‘JK’ business

2014.11.4  　THE JAPAN TIMES : Notorious ‘JK’ business exploits troubled high school girls for sex

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EN ESPAÑOL : La trata de menores en Japón

Please Support Us

The work we do at Colabo is only possible through your generous support.
From members and shelter sponsors, to small one-time donations of money and goods, it is your generosity that keeps us open for these girls.
Please join us in showing these girls we care, and that we believe in their potential.
→Click here to donate!

 

Please Support the Construction of the Women’s Human Rights Centre

Donation can be made here

Contact Us