The fight to end prostitution began in earnest following Japan's defeat in World War II, with newly liberated women Diet members in the vanguard of the fight.

After several attempts at legislating against the practice during the Occupation from 1945 to 1952 and again after Japan regained its independence in 1952, what became the Prostitution Prevention Law finally passed through the National Diet in 1956.

Its enactment was held off until April 1958 to give workers in the industry time to find new professions or enter into government-run rehabilitation centers (where the cost of feeding the occupants was famously less per day than what the Tokyo Metropolitan Government would pay for meals for dogs awaiting euthanasia in pounds).