In 1919, the Japanese established the Taiwan Salt Making Company and began to develop the Anshun salt plant located in what is now Nanliao Salt Village. Because the salt fields were far from the nearest villages, they built a rectangular island district in the salt fields for salt makers to use as a place to live. It gradually became a village on the salt fields.
西元一九一九年，大日本鹽業公司開始於南寮鹽村所在的安順鹽場開墾，由於鹽田距離附近聚落遙遠，因此在鹽田中開闢一個長方形島區，供鹽民居住，漸漸形成鹽田聚落。