Prostitution in Taiwan

Prostitution in Taiwan was made illegal under a 1991 law. However, legislation was introduced in 2011 to allow local governments in Taiwan to set up "special sex zones" (Chinese: 性專區) where prostitution is permitted. Outside these zones prostitution is illegal. As of 2017, no "special sex zones" have been created.

During the period of Japanese rule (1895–1945), geisha houses and brothels were authorized to operate in certain districts of Taiwan. Later geishas evolved into "hostesses". As late as the 1950s, many girls who were indentured by their parents into prostitution for financial reasons consented out of filial piety. During World War II, the Japanese recruited or coerced women into serving as comfort women.

During this period, Korean women came to work as prostitutes for the Japanese in Taiwan or were coerced into sexual slavery.

When the Republic of China took control in 1945, the Chinese Nationalist government initially banned most hostesses and prostitutes, labeling prostitution an immoral practice encouraged by the Japanese. At the same time, however, the Ministry of Defense maintained official brothels on outer islands to provide sexual services to the many single military men who arrived from China in 1949. In 1956, the government revived the policy of registering and licensing prostitutes under the Measures for the Administration of Taiwan Province of Prostitutes.

Rapid industrialization in the 1960s 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 U.S. army bases spawned bars and dance halls to cater to the American military population. The majority of bar girls servicing US troops in Taiwan were Taiwan Aboriginal women. The prostitutes patronised by foreigners at Beitou hot springs in Taiwan during this period were Taiwan Aboriginal women ("young tribal girls from the mountains") whose clients included Japanese businessmen who later switched to sex tourism of South Korean women in 1972 after Japan ended formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

Government concern over immorality led to increased police attention directed at intimacy in public, and sometimes in private. The sex trade became increasingly controversial; in 1974 the government stopped licensing new brothels, and in the 1980s, 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. The last jurisdiction to outlaw prostitution was the city of Taipei, in 1997, under mayor Chen Shui-bian. However, Chen lost the next election and his successor, Ma Ying-jeou, allowed a grace period that extended to April 2001.

Sex work became illegal in Taiwan under Article 80 of the Social Order and Maintenance Act 1991, which replaced the Police Offence Law of the 1950s and criminalized the mainly female population of sex workers. Sex workers could be detained for a maximum of three days, fined up to NT$30,000 or sent to a correctional institution for a period of between 6 and 12 months.

Chen, who outlawed sex work in Taipei in 1997, was President from 2000 to 2008. During this time, sex workers were prosecuted and advocates like Josephine Ho also faced discrimination from conservative groups.