Colabo needs your help!

By Ali Morris, FiLiA VAWG Lead for Wales

FiLiA has won funding to continue the incredible work we did in Japan last year, with women's groups supporting women and girls exploited by the sex industry. This is great news. While there, as part of the cultural exchange project, I did some work with Colabo, a group that supports young women and runaways and displaced teenage girls in Tokyo to avoid or escape sexual exploitation, including pornography and prostitution. They undertake difficult and often hostile work including offering support, resources and a safe place to rest at their centre, outreach work in the red light district, and their innovative Tsubomi Café, a large pink bus offering teenage girls a free service including a friendly ear, clothing, food and ongoing support. I saw first-hand the work they did in the café bus and walking around the red-light district handing out support packs. It was a heartrending experience.

Colabo is one of few organisations working with the Tokyo government to support young women escaping abuse or sexual violence. They are barely tolerated by the government and public alike, and with the COVID-19 pandemic drastically impacting the livelihoods of women and children, Colabo’s services have become even more crucial and lifesaving during these economically difficult times.

Colabo and its incredible founder Nito Yumeno aren’t strangers to unfounded criticism and underhand tactics of harassment and abuse, some which was already happening while I was there. There were deliveries, takeaways and taxis being sent to their address unsolicited, men intimidating the workers at the café bus, stories appearing online, and the café bus being vandalised and taken out of service.

However, the level of abuse and harassment has increased to the point where Colabo's government funding has been withdrawn and the donations of food, clothes and toiletries they so relied on are drying up. This has been shamefully supported by politicians and high-profile men. The abuse was upped a notch by Youtuber and ex-game developer Himasora Akane who speculated online that Colabo was misusing its public funds. A series of events meant that Colabo ultimately lost many of its supporters and funds that keep its service going.

If this service folds, girls and young women in Japan will be faced with dire consequences. They will be thrown back into sexual exploitation and the sex trade without any way of finding or receiving support.

We cannot allow our sisters in Japan to be intimidated, abused and harassed with impunity. They are desperate for funds to carry on with their life saving work and recover the reputation they took so long in building.

We understand these are incredibly difficult times for everyone, but if you can give anything, however small, please do so. If you are able, then please become a member. The link to their donation page is below. Messages of support will be so important to them at this time.

https://colabo-official.net/support/support-2-2-english/

Script of a speech given in Tokyo by Ali Morris

Natsuki Kato shares her experience of attending FiLiA2022

 

Japan Education Exchange Visit

In November 2022, Ali, MVAWG Lead for Wales undertook an exchange visit to Japan on behalf of FiLiA. The exchange partner was PAPS, a feminist organisation that works with women in prostitution, pornography or who are sexually exploited.

The purpose of the visit to Japan was;

  • Learning opportunity – to see how the sex industry is affecting women in Japan, and to see how women and girls are supported.

  • Exchange of ideas and practice – to look at how we can influence and support each other's work and exchange our expertise.

  • Mutual support – building a support network that enhances our work. 

  • Global sisterhood & solidarity – encouraging and strengthening feminist work around the globe with a unified focus.

Ali also met with other feminist organisations and academic researchers who work with women in prostitution and pornography and took part in a number of talks and conferences where she was the guest speaker. She spoke about the situation here in the UK and presented the FiLiA Women First Toolkit, a resource which supports areas to develop services that support women in prostitution to exit the sex industry. This Toolkit is the first of its kind in the UK and has been developed with the voice of survivors at its core. She says she was treated like a celebrity, with women (and some men) queueing to have their photos taken with her!

As part of the exchange visit Ali visited Tokyo's red light district with feminist anti-prostitution organisation Colabo. She was part of the outreach team that set up the weekly café bus service for teenagers. These young girls dominate the red light district and are often homeless and/or come from abusive families. The café bus gives them an opportunity to receive emotional and practical support including clothing, toiletries, food and condoms. Ali also walked around the red light district with resource packs for any girls and young women who couldn't or wouldn't come to the bus. She was also given an explanation about the 'Host Clubs' that are everywhere and how the system is so different from the UK. She was astonished at the total absence of drug use amongst women involved in prostitution. This was so different from the situation in the UK where a huge percentage of women are addicted to substances to be able to get through their experiences.

She met with many survivors who now volunteer for PAPS and Colabo (and others) and how the sex industry targets girls as young as 12. Most of the girls she saw in the red light district were around 14/15 yrs old. The sheer scale of the problem was shocking to a Western eye and how open in plain sight it all was. There is even a police station in the heart of the district that simply ignores what is happening. Once a girl hits 20 she is often seen as useless to the sex industry.

Ali made strong links with the organisations and individuals she met, and FiLiA will be maintaining these relationships in order to support them further and strengthen the global sisterhood and solidarity they are so good at. Ali felt honoured and humbled to have met so many women working to have a voice under incredibly difficult cultural and political circumstances and is thrilled to be carrying on the work for the future.

If anyone would like Ali to give a presentation to their group about her trip, then please get in touch with us.

BlogJ SteinGlobal, Sexual Exploitation Industries, Violence Against Women