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Prostitution in Taiwan

During the Japanese colonial period (1895?1945), geisha houses and brothels had been authorized to operate in certain districts; later geishas evolved into "hostesses". As late as the 1950s, many girls who had been indentured by their parents into prostitution for financial reasons did so willingly, out of a feeling of filial piety. During World War II, the Japanese recruited or coerced women into serving as comfort women.

With the return to Chinese rule in 1945, the Chinese Nationalist government initially banned most hostesses and prostitutes, labeling prostitution as an immoral phenomenon encouraged by the Japanese, although at the same time the Ministry of Defense maintained official brothels on outer islands to provide sexual services to the many single military men who arrived from the mainland in 1949. In the 1950's, the government revived the policy of registering and licensing prostitutes.

Rapid industrialization in the 1960's brought an influx of young people into the cities, giving rise to a coffee-house subculture, where female hostesses catered to young male workers. At roughly the same time, the opening of two US army bases spawned bars and dance halls to cater to the American military population. Government concern over immorality led to increased police attention directed at intimacy in public and sometimes private. The sex trade became increasingly controversial; in 1974 the government stopped licensing new brothels, and in the 1980's, a campaign aimed at rescuing Taiwanese aborigine girls forced into prostitution grew into an anti-prostitution movement that successfully lobbied for outright banning of prostitution across Taiwan, culminating in the 1997 outlawing of prostitution in the city of Taipei under then mayor Chen Shuibian.

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Last updated: October 11, 2010