In the crowded heart of Tokyo—where glowing billboards, buzzing streets, and seamless subways project a facade of modern perfection - there are girls who vanish. Not physically, but socially. Forgotten by policy, misunderstood by society, and often judged before they’re ever helped. For them, Yumeno Nito is a rare lifeline. A soft-spoken but unyielding force, she has become one of Japan’s most important advocates for vulnerable teenage girls, and her organization Colabo is unlike anything else in the country.
Founded in 2011, Colabo is a youth-centered nonprofit that offers support to girls aged 10–25 who are facing sexual exploitation, poverty, homelessness, and domestic abuse. Many of them are survivors of the JK business—a euphemism in Japan for the sexual commodification of high school girls. Often lured or coerced into compensated dating, hostess work, or predatory entertainment jobs, these girls fall through the cracks of Japan’s welfare and legal systems. Colabo doesn't just catch them—it builds a world where they can breathe again.
For Nito, this work is personal. She has spoken publicly about her own experiences as a teenage runaway, how the pain of being unheard and unprotected lit a fire in her that never dimmed. Her background is not that of a detached academic or policy strategist—she’s lived what many of these girls live. That authenticity is Colabo’s superpower. “Girls don’t need to be rescued,” she often says. “They need space to be heard, to be safe, and to be treated with dignity.”
Colabo’s most visible initiative is the “Tsubomi Cafe”, a bright pink bus parked regularly in Tokyo’s nightlife districts like Shinjuku and Shibuya. It’s a mobile refuge in the middle of danger. The bus offers food, warm drinks, emotional support, and information about legal and housing resources. Staffed by women—many of them with lived experience or training in social work—it provides a safe entry point for girls too afraid to seek institutional help.
But Colabo isn’t just about survival—it’s about change. Nito is not content with emergency aid; she wants systems to transform. Her advocacy has pushed for reforms in how underage prostitution is policed, how trafficking victims are classified, and how the media portrays girls in crisis. One of Colabo’s signature public education projects, “We Were Bought” (“Watashitachi wa Kawareta”), is a powerful traveling exhibition that showcases anonymous testimonies and visual stories from survivors. It forces a confrontation with the quiet violence tolerated by society in the name of culture, business, or even “freedom.”
What makes Nito's work particularly radical is its intersectional feminist lens in a country where such conversations remain largely taboo. She draws attention to the fact that gender-based violence in Japan is not just physical—it’s systemic. From the lack of sex education to the invisibility of abuse survivors in policy discussions, she relentlessly exposes how institutions fail young girls, then blame them for the consequences.
And it hasn’t been easy. Colabo has faced pushback from conservative groups and online hate campaigns, especially after public media coverage. Critics accuse her of exaggerating the problem, misrepresenting Japan, or using public funds for feminist agendas. But through all of it, Nito stands her ground. Her response is clear: “If we’re uncomfortable talking about this, imagine how uncomfortable it is to live through it.”
Her courage has not gone unnoticed. In 2019, Nito was included in Forbes Asia’s 30 Under 30 in the Social Entrepreneurs category, and in 2022 she became a national symbol of feminist youth leadership. Yet for all the honors, she remains focused on the girl who steps onto that pink bus for the first time—hungry, ashamed, and unsure if anyone truly cares.
Nito’s long-term vision is to create policy-backed infrastructures that allow every at-risk girl in Japan to access counseling, education, housing, and legal protection—without stigma. She dreams of a country where girls don't just escape exploitation, but thrive beyond it.
