East Asia

East Asia
Area	11,839,074 km2 (4,571,092 sq mi)[note 1]
Population	1,575,784,500[note 2]
Density	134 /km2 (350 /sq mi)
States and territories	China    Hong Kong    Macau  Japan  North Korea  South Korea  Mongolia  Taiwan
Languages and language families	Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, and many others
Nominal GDP (2011)	$ 14.878 Trillion
GDP per capita (2011)	$ 9,409
Time zones	UTC +7:00 (Western Mongolia) to UTC +9:00 (Japan and Korean Peninsula)
Capital cities	Beijing Tokyo Pyongyang Seoul Ulaanbaatar Taipei
Other major cities	Busan Daegu Guangzhou  Hong Kong Incheon Kaohsiung  Macau Nagoya New Taipei Osaka Shanghai Shenzhen Taichung Tianjin Yokohama (see list)

East Asia or Eastern Asia (the latter form preferred solely by the United Nations) is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical^[2] or cultural^[3] terms. Geographically and geopolitically, it covers about 12,000,000 km² (4,600,000 sq mi), or about 28% of the Asian continent, about 15% bigger than the area of Europe.

More than 1.5 billion people, about 38% of the population of Asia and 22% or over one fifth of all the people in the world, live in East Asia. The region is one of the world's most populated places, with a population density of 133 inhabitants per square kilometre (340 /sq mi), being about three times the world average of 45 /km² (120 /sq mi), although Mongolia has the lowest population density of a sovereign state. Using the UN subregion definitions, East Asia ranks second in population only to Southern Asia.

Historically, many societies in East Asia have been part of the Chinese cultural sphere, and East Asian vocabulary and scripts are often derived from Classical Chinese and Chinese script. Sometimes Northeast Asia is used to denote Japan and Korea.^[4] Major religions include Buddhism (mostly Mahayana), Confucianism or Neo-Confucianism, Taoism, Chinese folk religion in China, Shinto in Japan, Shamanism in Korea, Mongolia and other indigenous populations of northern East Asia,^[5][6] and recently Christianity in South Korea.^[7] The Chinese Calendar is the root from which many other East Asian calendars are derived.

History

The Presentations of Various Cultures in a Constructive map of East Asia

The history of East Asia is predominantly the history of the Chinese Dynasties that dominated the region in matters of trade as well as militarily, such as the Qin and the Han Dynasties. There are records of tributes sent overseas from the early kingdoms of Korea and Japan. There were also considerable levels of cultural and religious exchange between the Chinese and other regional Dynasties and Kingdoms.

As connections began to strengthen with the Western world, China's power began to diminish. Around the same time, Japan solidified itself as a nation state. Through WWII, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan and Eastern China fell under Japanese control. Following Japan's defeat in the war, the Korean peninsula became independent, while Taiwan was returned to the Republic of China.

Uses of the term East Asia

Regions of Asia as defined by the UN (except for Northern Asia):^[1]

  Northern Asia

  Central Asia

  Western Asia

  Southern Asia

  Eastern Asia

  South-Eastern Asia

The UN subregion of Eastern Asia and other common definitions of East Asia contain the entirety of the People's Republic of China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Mongolia and Taiwan.^{[note 3][2][1]}

Culturally, China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam are commonly seen as being encompassed by cultural East Asia.^{[3][8][9][10]}

Alternative definitions

There are mixed debates around the world whether these countries or regions should be considered in East Asia or not.

• Vietnam (officially part of Southeast Asia geographically, although culturally it is a part of the East Asian cultural sphere, politically, it is related to both Southeast Asia and East Asia)
• Siberia in Russia (often described as North Asia due to its location, although this part of Russia is often seen as more closely related to its East Asian neighbours)
• Outer Manchuria in Russia (also known as Priamurye) - this part of Russia was ruled by the Chinese Qing dynasty until the Treaty of Aigun in 1858 and the Treaty of Peking in 1860, when the Sino-Russian border was realigned on the Amur and Ussuri rivers in Russia's favour. In contrast to Siberia it has a humid continental climate.

In business and economics, East Asia has been used to refer to a wide geographical area covering ten countries in ASEAN, People's Republic of China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.^{[note 3]} However, in this context, the term "Far East" is often more appropriate which covers ASEAN countries and the traditional countries in East Asia. Far East describes the region's geographical position in relation to Europe rather than its location within Asia. Alternatively, the term "Asia Pacific Region" is often used in describing the Far East region as well as Oceania.

In contrast to the United Nations definition, East Asia commonly is used to refer to the eastern part of Asia, as the term implies. Observers preferring a broader definition of 'East Asia' often use the term Northeast Asia to refer to the greater China area, the Korean Peninsula, Taiwan, and Japan, with Southeast Asia covering the ten ASEAN countries. This usage, which is increasingly widespread in economic and diplomatic discussion, is at odds with the historical meanings of both "East Asia" and "Northeast Asia".^[11][12][13] The Council on Foreign Relations defines Northeast Asia as Japan and Korea.^[4]

Territory and region data

Demographics

Country	Area km²	Population	Population density per km²	HDI (2011)	Capital
China (PRC)	9,640,011	1,339,724,852	138	0.699	Beijing
Hong Kong (PRC)	1,104	7,061,200	6,390	0.898	Hong Kong
Japan	377,930	127,950,000	337	0.901	Tokyo
Macau (PRC)	30	556,800	18,662	No Data	Macau
Mongolia	1,564,100	2,809,600	2	0.653	Ulaanbaatar
North Korea	120,538	24,346,000	198	No Data	Pyongyang
South Korea	100,210	48,988,833	500	0.897	Seoul
Taiwan (ROC)	36,188	23,174,528	639	0.882	Taipei

Economy

Country	GDP nominal millions of USD (2012)	GDP nominal per capita USD (2012)	GDP PPP millions of USD (2011)	GDP PPP per capita USD (2012)
China (PRC)	8,227,037	6,076	12,383,935	9,162
Hong Kong (PRC)	263,021	36,667	351,119	51,494
Japan	5,963,969	46,736	4,440,376	36,266
Macau (PRC)[14]	44,300	78,275	47,190	87,765
Mongolia	10,258	3,673	13,264	5,372
North Korea	12,385	1,159	40,000	1,800
South Korea	1,155,872	23,113	1,554,149	32,272
Taiwan (ROC)	473,971	20,328	876,035	38,749

Culture

The culture of East Asia has been influenced by the civilization of northern China. East Asia shares a Confucian ethical philosophy, Buddhism, political and legal structures, and historically a common writing system.^[15] The relationship between Northern China and East Asia has been compared to the historical influence of Greco-Roman civilization on Europe.^[15]

Cities

• 

  Tokyo is the largest city in the world, both in metropolitan population and economy.

• 

  Seoul is the capital and largest city of South Korea (ROK), and is a leading global technology hub.

• 

  Kaohsiung is the second largest city in Taiwan. Kaohsiung Harbor is one of the largest harbors in the world.

• 

  Shanghai is the largest city in China and one of the largest in the world, and is the leading commercial and financial center of mainland China.

• 

  Taipei is the capital of the Republic of China (Taiwan) and is one of the world's leading technical centres in Asia, and is the location of the Taipei 101. Night View of Taipei

• 

  Hong Kong, enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, is one of the world's leading global financial centres and is known for its cosmopolitan lifestyle.

• 

  Ulaanbaatar is the largest city in Mongolia with a population of 1 Million as of 2008.

• 

  Pyongyang is the capital of North Korea (DPRK), and is a significant metropolis on the Korean Peninsula.

Pass of the ISS over Mongolia, looking out west towards the Pacific Ocean, China, and Japan. As the video progresses, you can see major cities along the coast and the Japanese islands on the Philippine Sea. The island of Guam can be seen further down the pass into the Philippine Sea, and the pass ends just to the east of New Zealand. A lightning storm can be seen as light pulses near the end of the video.

See also

• East Asia Summit
• East Asian Community
• East Asian Games
• East Asian studies
• East Asian cultural sphere
• East Asian languages
• Four Asian Tigers
• China–Japan–South Korea trilateral summit
• Chinese calligraphy
• Korean calligraphy
• Japanese calligraphy

Notes

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to East Asia.

Look up east asia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• High resolution map of East Asian region

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