日治時期臺灣性病防治政策的展開

Implementation of Venereal Disease Prevention Policies in Japanese Colonial Taiwan

本文主要從法制面切入，探討日治時期臺灣性病防治政策的推展過程及其特色。殖民地臺灣承襲了近代日本「性病感染源＝娼婦」的核心概念，1896年起性病防治政策便與買賣春管理體制同步展開。殖民當局透過強制性病診療制的建立，同時監控公娼與私娼的身體。然而，針對私娼的性病診療制不到一年便嘎然中止，長達25年的日治前半期，公娼成為性病防治的唯一目標。性病防治對象的公／私娼之別，反映出殖民當局以民族差別主義為出發點的殖民醫療特質：透過徹底控管以日人為主的公娼身體，維護在臺日人社會免於性病感染；另一方面，僅以刑事責罰約束以臺灣女性為大宗的私娼，將其排除在性病防治體制之外。直到1923年「行政執行法」在臺施行，殖民當局才重新展開對私娼的強制性病診療，並開始運用公權力介入臺灣人社會的買、賣春活動。但其真正意圖仍是出自維護殖民者本身利益為第一優先的考量，其著眼點為確保在臺日人接觸臺灣人私娼後免於感染性病的風險。1937年，隨著中日戰爭的爆發，殖民當局配合日本政府在臺施行「花柳病豫防法」，性病防治對象也從「娼婦」擴展至「全民」。看似達到性別上、民族上平等的日治末期性病防治政策，其實是為了因應戰爭需求、確保人力資源及強化人口素質的結果。

This article examines the features and implementation of policies for preventing venereal diseases in Taiwan under Japanese colonial rule from the legal perspective. With the adoption of the prevalent view in Japan that prostitution led to spread of sexually transmitted diseases, related policies thus introduced in colonial Taiwan since 1896 aimed at both venereal disease prevention and prostitution control. The colonial authorities established a compulsory venereal disease control system as a means to monitor the health conditions of licensed and unlicensed prostitutes. However, such health-check scheme for unlicensed prostitutes was aborted in less than a year after its initiation. As a result, only licensed prostitutes were included in the policies for prevention against sexually transmitted diseases during the first 25 years of Japanese colonial rule. The discrepancy in colonial health control policy for licensed and unlicensed prostitutes was attributed not to their legal status but racism. The majority of licensed prostitutes at that time were Japanese. Providing strict health control for these women would mean protection of the Japanese in colonial Taiwan against sexually transmitted diseases. On the contrary, most unlicensed prostitutes were local Taiwanese who were excluded from the venereal disease control scheme but were subjected to criminal penalties for being sex workers. It was only till the introduction of the Administrative Enforcement Law in 1923 that unlicensed prostitutes were once again included into the compulsory venereal disease control scheme. Since then, the authorities began to enforce prohibitive measures against Taiwanese sex workers. However, the real motive behind such prohibition was to safeguard the interests of the colonizers and the priority focused on protecting the Japanese against infection of venereal diseases transmitted by Taiwanese prostitutes.