The legality of prostitution in Asia varies by country. There is often a significant difference in Asia between prostitution laws and the practice of prostitution. In 2011, the Asian Commission on AIDS estimated there were 10 million sex workers in Asia and 75 million male customers.
Child prostitution is a serious problem in this region. Past surveys indicate that 30 to 35 percent of all prostitutes in the Mekong sub-region of Southeast Asia are between 12 and 17 years of age.
The World Health Organization has called for the decriminalisation of sex work as a means of combating HIV/AIDS. The Asian region has the lowest incidence (5.2%).
This page uses the UN system of subregions.
Central Asia Kazakhstan
In Kazakhstan prostitution itself is legal, but acts facilitating prostitution, such as operating a brothel or prostitution ring, are illegal. Forced prostitution and prostitution connected to organized crime are prohibited. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) reported that criminal prostitution rings often included local law enforcement officials.
Estimates of the number of prostitutes in Kazakhstan vary from 4,000 and 25,000, including a number from Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine.
Sex workers often face harassment, extortion, arbitrary arrest, rape, and violence from the police.
Kyrgyzstan
Prostitution in Kyrgyzstan has been legal since 1998, but the operation of brothels, pimping, and recruiting persons into prostitution are illegal, with penalties of up to five years There are estimated to be 7,100 sex workers in the country. Prostitution occurs on the streets, in bars, hotels and brothels.
Prostitution has been blamed for a rise in HIV/AIDS. The HIV prevalence amongst sex workers is 2%.
Sex trafficking is a problem in the country.
Tajikistan
Prostitution in Tajikistan is legal, but related activities such as soliciting, procuring and brothel keeping are prohibited. Prostitution has increased within the country since the collapse of the Soviet Union. UNAIDS estimate there are 14,100 female sex workers in Tajikistan. Government official figures for 2015 were 1,777 prostitutes and 194 brothels. Prostitution occurs on the streets and in bars, restaurants, nightclubs and saunas, and HIV prevalence is 3.5% amongst sex workers.
Previously, as soliciting is an administrative offence, arrested prostitutes are given a nominal fine and released, while those procuring are prosecuted, potentially being punished by up to eight years in jail. In 2015 a new law was passed that doubled the fine for solicitation and added 15 days of home arrest to the punishment.
Turkmenistan
Prostitution in Turkmenistan is illegal but common. Prostitution has increased within the country since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Poverty is one of the reasons women have turned to prostitution, sometimes under pressure from family members.
Prostitutes frequent bars, casinos and nightclubs; some are addicted to heroin. In Daşoguz, a major truck stop, many 'night butterflies' service the truck drivers in the overnight truck parks.
Uzbekistan
Prostitution in Uzbekistan is illegal but common, especially in Samarkand, Fergana, and the capital, Tashkent. Prostitution has increased within the country since the collapse of the Soviet Union. UNAIDS estimate there are 22,000 sex workers in the country. Many of the women have turned to prostitution in Uzbekistan because of poverty.
Law enforcement is inconsistent. Some police officers will harass prostitutes and extort "protection money" from them. Sometimes prostitutes work with police as informants to avoid being arrested.
East Asia China
Officially, prostitution is illegal in mainland China, but in practice is widespread. Section 5: Discrimination, Societal Abuse, and Trafficking in Persons.
Shortly after taking power in 1949, the Chinese Communist Party embarked upon a series of campaigns that purportedly eradicated prostitution from mainland China by the early 1960s. Since the loosening of government controls over society in the early 1980s, prostitution in mainland China not only has become more visible, but can now be found throughout both urban and rural areas. In spite of government efforts, prostitution has now developed to the extent that it comprises an industry, one that involves a great number of people and produces a considerable economic output. Prostitution has also become associated with a number of problems, including organized crime, government corruption and sexually transmitted diseases. For example, a Communist Party official who was a top provincial campaigner against corruption was removed from his post after he was caught in a hotel room with a prostitute."Chinese anti-corruption official sacked for Russian tryst ". Monsters and Critics, 12 April 2007. Retrieved 19 April 2009
Hong Kong
Prostitution in Hong Kong is itself legal, but organised prostitution is illegal, as there are laws against keeping a vice establishment, causing or procuring another to be a prostitute, living on the prostitution of others, or public solicitation.United States Department of State, "2008 Human Rights Report: China (includes Tibet, Hong Kong, and Macau)", Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, 2008 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, 25 February 2009
The most visible public venues for sex workers in Hong Kong, especially for tourists, are massage parlours and the so-called "Japanese style night clubs". However, most of the commercial sex worker industry consists of women working in small, usually one-room apartments, usually referred to as "one-woman brothels", the equivalent of the "walk-up brothel" in the United Kingdom. They advertise for clients through the Internet and local classifieds. Most popular mainstream newspapers will carry such classifieds with brothel guides as an insert within racing form guides. Yellow neon advertising boxes were used to advertise sexual services to such an extent that "yellow" (黃) became synonymous with prostitution.
Macau
Prostitution is legal in Macau unlike in mainland China, because the city is a special administrative region of the country. However, operating a brothel and procuring are both illegal in Macau, with the latter punishable by a maximum jail sentence of 8 years. The city has a large sex trade despite there being no official red-light district. The trade is said to be controlled by Chinese organized crime groups, which has occasionally led to violent clashes. Street prostitution takes place in Macau and prostitutes also work in low-rent buildings, massage parlours and illegal brothels, and the casinos, nightclubs, saunas and some of the larger hotels. Most hotels, however, have suspected prostitutes removed from the premises. Many of the city's sidewalks and underpasses are littered with prostitutes' calling cards.
Japan
Prostitution is illegal in Japan; however, as the definition of prostitution is "intercourse with an unspecified person in exchange for payment", the sale of other sexual services is legal and widespread.
Prostitution has existed throughout the country's history. While the Anti-Prostitution Law of 1956 states that "No person may either do prostitution or become the customer of it," loopholes, liberal interpretations and loose enforcement of the law have allowed the sex industry to prosper and earn an estimated 2.3 trillion yen ($24 billion) a year.
In Japan, the is not synonymous with prostitution. Since Japanese law defines prostitution as "intercourse with an unspecified person in exchange for payment," most fūzoku offer only non-coital services, such as conversation, dancing, or bathing, to remain legal."Law bends over backward to allow 'fuzoku'", Japan Times, 27 May 2008. Nevertheless, polls by MiW and the National Women's Education Center of Japan have found that between 20% and 40% of Japanese men have paid for sex.
Mongolia
Prostitution is illegal in Mongolia but widespread in some areas. The Global Fund for Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and Malaria estimated there were about 19,000 sex workers in the country in 2006. Many women in Mongolia turn to prostitution through poverty.
Sex trafficking and child prostitution, including child sex tourism, are problems in the country.
North Korea
Prostitution is illegal in North Korea and, according to the North Korean government, does not exist. Under Article 261 of the Criminal law, prostitution is punishable by up to two years labour if engaged in "multiple times".Article 261 According to CIA analyst Helen-Louise Hunter, during the rule of Kim Il-sung, there was no organized prostitution, but some prostitution was still practiced discreetly near railroad stations and restaurants.Kim Il-song's North Korea by Helen-Louise Hunter.Greenwood Publishing Group, 1999, p 107 While defectors currently report widespread prostitution, this is not experienced by visitors to the country. Allegedly, kippumjo provides sexual entertainment to high-ranking officials."" at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in April 2004; speaker: Ji Sun Jeong for A Woman's Voice International
South Korea
Prostitution is illegal in South Korea, but according to the Korea Women's Development Institute, the sex trade in Korea was estimated to amount to 14 trillion South Korean won ($13 billion) in 2007, roughly 1.6% of the nation's gross domestic product.Sex trade accounts for 1.6% of GDP . KWDI: Korea Women's Development Institute
According to a survey conducted by the Department of Urology at the Korea University College of Medicine in 2015, 23.1% of males and 2.6% of females, aged 18–69, had sexual experience with a prostitute. Despite legal sanctions and police crackdowns, prostitution continues to flourish in South Korea, while sex workers continue to actively resist the state's activities.
Taiwan
Legislation was introduced in 2011 to allow local governments in Taiwan to set up "special zones" where prostitution is permitted. Outside these zones prostitution is illegal. As of 2017 no "special zones" had been opened.
North Asia
Russia
Prostitution is an administrative, but not criminal, offence in Russia (such as, for example, drinking beer in a public place or walking nude on the street). The maximum punishment is a fine up to 2000 rubles (~$30); however, organising prostitution or engaging somebody into prostitution is punishable by a prison term.
South Asia Afghanistan
Prostitution is illegal in Afghanistan, with punishments ranging from 5 to 15 years imprisonment. Despite Afghanistan being deeply religious and one of the most conservative countries in the world, where sex outside marriage is against the law, some prostitution activities are reported in the capital Kabul as well as in the Mazar-e-Sharif area in the north of the country.
Small number of women from Iran, Tajikistan, China, and possibly Uganda and other countries are imported for prostitution into Afghanistan. According to the Afghan Interior Ministry's department of sexual crimes, about 2 to 3 prostitution arrests were made each week in Afghanistan between 2007 and 2008.
Bangladesh
Prostitution is legal and regulated in Bangladesh, but it is not considered a respectable profession by Bangladeshi society. Prostitutes must register and swear an affidavit stating she is unable to find any other work. Local NGOs estimate the total number of female prostitutes to be as many as 100,000.
There are 20 brothel-villages in the country. The largest is Daulatdia which has about 1,300 sex workers, it is one of the largest brothels in the world.
Unwed mothers, orphans, and others outside the normal family support system are the most vulnerable to human trafficking. Government corruption greatly facilitates the process of trafficking. Police and local government officials often ignore trafficking in women and children for commercial sexual exploitation and are easily bribed by brothel owners and pimps.
Bhutan