2024-02-14
Many Citizens Probably Know Nothing About This Law, but It Is an Outrageous Piece of Legislation Suspected of Being Unconstitutional
February 13, 2023
The following is from Ryoko Ikeda’s painstaking work published in this month’s issue of the monthly magazine Hanada.
Even so, why on earth, and since when, has the government allowed people like these to siphon off public money?
On this subject, Ryoko Ikeda has published a substantive article that gets straight to the heart of the matter, entitled “Yumeno Nito and the Red Network,” in the March issue of the monthly magazine Hanada, now on sale, spanning pages 80–89 in a three-column layout.
Every Japanese citizen who can read must read it.
It is no exaggeration to say that Japan will perish unless people read this substantive article.
Opening passages omitted; pages 80–82.
Emphasis in the text, other than in the headings, is mine.
What Is the “Colabo Issue”?
On January 4, every major newspaper except the Nikkei covered the “Colabo issue,” which had caused an uproar on social media since the end of last year.
“In response to a residents’ audit request alleging irregularities in the accounting reports of Colabo, a general incorporated association headed by Yumeno Nito that was contracted to carry out a Tokyo Metropolitan Government program supporting young women who have suffered sexual violence, abuse, and other harm, the metropolitan government’s audit commissioners announced on January 4 that they had found certain aspects of the accounting improper and instructed the metropolitan government to reinvestigate the actual expenses incurred.
They recommended taking appropriate measures, including demanding repayment if any excess contract payments were identified.” (Sankei Shimbun)
This was the first residents’ audit request against the metropolitan government to be upheld since the 2016 case involving former Governor Yoichi Masuzoe’s private use of an official vehicle, yet every newspaper, perhaps fearing attacks from the left, has reported only the superficial finding that “certain aspects were improper.”
What, then, lies at the heart of the “Colabo issue”?
First, Nito appears to be using a public position in government to steer benefits toward her own interests.
Second, Nito, who holds a public position, has extremely close ties to opposition parties, including the Japanese Communist Party.
Most importantly, the “Colabo issue” is merely the tip of the iceberg.
Before considering the “Colabo issue,” there is a law that readers need to know about.
It is the “Act on Support for Women Facing Difficult Problems,” enacted on May 19 last year, hereafter referred to as the “Women’s Support Act.”
Many citizens probably know nothing about this law, but it is an outrageous piece of legislation suspected of being unconstitutional.
And the person deeply involved in this law was none other than Nito.
Make It a Law That “Makes Them Do It”
First, please read Article 13 of the Women’s Support Act.
“Prefectures shall, in cooperation with private organizations engaged in activities supporting women facing difficult problems, … undertake the identification of such women, consultation, and other support services through visits, outreach rounds, the provision of places where they can feel they belong, the use of the internet, accompaniment to relevant institutions, and other methods prescribed by an ordinance of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.”
Meanwhile, Colabo’s website describes its work as “activities supporting teenage girls of junior and senior high school age,” specifically including “consultation, provision of meals, overnight accommodation in shelters, operation of shared housing, activities conducted by teenage girls themselves, lectures, awareness-raising activities, and so on.”
In other words, the activities of private organizations stipulated in Article 13 of the Women’s Support Act almost entirely overlap with Colabo’s activities.
Is this merely a coincidence?
Since the initial consideration of this legislation in 2018, Nito has participated as a member of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s “Study Group on Support for Women Facing Difficult Problems.”
In other words, Nito held a public position from which she could have provisions incorporated into the law requiring local governments to support the activities she herself was conducting.
According to Colabo’s 2021 annual report, approximately 78 percent of its operating revenue of about 44 million yen consisted of payments under Tokyo’s “Support Program for Young Female Victims and Others” of 26 million yen and a “Grant for Supporting Victims of Domestic Violence and Other Forms of Abuse” of 8.7 million yen.
The accounting irregularities alleged on this occasion concerned the “Support Program for Young Female Victims and Others.”
After the Women’s Support Act was enacted, Nito continued participating in national policymaking under the Act as a member of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s “Expert Panel on Basic Policies and Related Matters Concerning Support for Women Facing Difficult Problems,” hereafter referred to as the “Expert Panel,” where she made the following remarks.
“Regarding the roles of the national government and others, I would like them to allocate funding so that the law will be effective.
I would like the national government’s basic policy to establish a common framework throughout the country.
We also need something that can be implemented with binding force, because if it is merely an obligation to make efforts, there will inevitably be local governments that do not act, so I would like laws and plans that make them do it.”
It sounds as though the representative of an organization receiving enormous subsidies from local governments is asking for legislation and other measures that compel local governments to provide budgetary support for her own activities.
It is as though she were abusing her public position to expand her own operations.
Even if Nito had no such intention, anyone holding public office must observe the maxim, “Do not adjust your cap beneath a plum tree”—avoid even the appearance of impropriety.
To be continued.