Prostitution in Taiwan was made illegal under a law. Outside these zones prostitution is illegal. As of no "special zones" had been opened. During the period of Japanese rule — , geisha houses and brothels were authorized to operate in certain districts of Taiwan. Later geishas evolved into "hostesses".
As late as the s, many girls who had been indentured by their parents into prostitution for financial reasons did so willingly, out of a feeling of filial piety. Korean women came to work as prostitutes for the Japanese in Taiwan during this period. When the Republic of China took control in , 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 In , 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 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 U. 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 the government stopped licensing new brothels, and in the 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. The last jurisdiction to outlaw prostitution was the city of Taipei, in , under mayor Chen Shui-bian.
Sex work became illegal in Taiwan under Article 80 of the Social Order and Maintenance Act , which replaced the Police Offence Law of the s and criminalized the mainly female population of sex workers.
