East Asia

East Asia
States and territories	China  Hong Kong  Macau  Taiwan  Mongolia  Japan  North Korea  South Korea
Capital cities	Beijing Taipei Ulaanbaatar Tokyo Pyongyang Seoul
Major cities	List Busan Daegu Guangzhou  Hong Kong Incheon Kaohsiung  Macau Nagoya Osaka Shanghai Shenzhen Tianjin Ulaanbaatar Xi'an Yokohama Others
Area[note 1]
• Total	11,839,074 km2 (4,571,092 sq mi)
Population [note 2]
• Total	1,601,709,712
• Density	140/km2 (350/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC +7:00 (Western Mongolia) UTC +8:00 (Rest of Mongolia, China, Taiwan, Macau and Hong Kong) UTC +8:30 (North Korea) UTC +9:00 (Japan and South Korea)
Languages and language families	Chinese Japanese Korean Tibetan Mongolian Others

East Asia or Eastern Asia is the eastern subregion of the Eurasian continent, which can be defined in either geographical^[1] or cultural^[2] 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. Although the coastal and rivery areas of the region form one of the world's most populated places, the population in Mongolia and Western China, both landlocked areas, is very sparsely distributed, with Mongolia having the lowest population density of a sovereign state. The overall population density of the region is 133 inhabitants per square kilometre (340/sq mi), about three times the world average of 45/km² (120/sq mi).

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.^[3] Major religions include Buddhism (mostly Mahayana), Confucianism or Neo-Confucianism, Taoism, Chinese folk religion, Islam in China and Taiwan, Shinto in Japan, Shamanism in Korea, Mongolia and other indigenous populations of northern East Asia,^[4][5] and recently Christianity in South Korea.^[6] The Chinese Calendar is the root from which many other East Asian calendars are derived.

History

The history of East Asia is predominantly the history of the Chinese Dynasties that dominated the region in matters of culture, 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. Throughout WWII, Korea, Taiwan, eastern part of China, and Vietnam fell under Japanese control. Following Japan's defeat in the war, the Korean peninsula became independent, while Taiwan became part of the Republic of China after the Chinese Civil War.

United Nations Statistics Division

UNSD geoscheme for Asia based on statistic convenience rather than implying any assumption regarding political or other affiliation of countries or territories:^[7]

  North Asia

  Central Asia

  Western Asia

  South Asia

  East Asia

  Southeast Asia

The UNSD definition of Eastern Asia purely based on statistical convenience,^[7] but also other common definitions of East Asia contain the entirety of China (including Hong Kong and Macau), Taiwan, Mongolia, Japan, North Korea and South Korea.^{[note 3][1][8]}

Culturally, China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam are commonly seen as being encompassed by cultural East Asia.^{[2][9][10][11]}

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.
• Sovereignty issues exist over some territories in the South China Sea.

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, Republic of China (Taiwan), Japan and South Korea.^{[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. However, being a Eurocentric term, 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, Taiwan, the Korean Peninsula, 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".^[12][13][14] The Council on Foreign Relations defines Northeast Asia as Japan and Korea.^[3]

Territory and region data

Demographics

Country or region	Area km²	Population	Population density per km²	HDI (2014)	Capital
China	9,640,011	1,373,000,000	138	0.719	Beijing
Hong Kong	1,104	7,298,600	6,390	0.891	Hong Kong
Japan	377,930	126,890,000	337	0.890	Tokyo
Macau	30	642,900	18,662	0.868 (2012)	Macau
Mongolia	1,564,100	3,041,648	2	0.698	Ulaanbaatar
North Korea	120,538	25,155,000	198	N/A	Pyongyang
South Korea	100,210	51,482,816	500	0.891	Seoul
Taiwan	36,188	23,468,748	639	0.882 (2014)	Taipei

Economy

The economy of East Asia is one of the most successful regional economies of the world, being home to some of the world's largest and most prosperous economies. Major positive factors have ranged from favourable political-legal environments for industry and commerce, through abundant natural resources of various kinds, to plentiful supplies of relatively low-cost, skilled and adaptable labour.

In modern societies, a high level of structural differentiation, functional specialisation, and autonomy of the economic system from government is a major contributor to industrial-commercial growth and prosperity. Currently in East Asia, trading systems are relatively open; and zero or low duties on imports of consumer and capital goods etc. have considerably helped stimulate cost-efficiency and change. Free and flexible labour and other markets are other important factors making for high levels of business-economic performance. East Asian populations have demonstrated highly positive work ethics. There are relatively large and fast-growing markets for consumer goods and services of all kinds.

Country or region	GDP nominal millions of USD (2015)[15]	GDP nominal per capita USD (2015)[15][16]	GDP PPP millions of USD (2015)[15]	GDP PPP per capita USD (2015)[15]
China	11,384,763	8,280	19,509,983	14,189
Hong Kong	307,790	42,096	414,481	56,689
Japan	4,116,242	32,480	4,842,395	38,210
Macau	51,753	91,376	80,744	142,599
Mongolia	12,409	4,179	36,429	12,268
North Korea	11,516	583	40,000	1,800
South Korea	1,392,952	27,512	1,849,398	36,528
Taiwan	518,816	22,082	1,113,792	47,407

Culture

The culture of East Asia has been influenced by the civilisation of China. East Asia, as well as Vietnam, share a Confucian ethical philosophy, Buddhism, political and legal structures, and historically a common writing system.^[17] The relationship between China and East Asia has been compared to the historical influence of Greco-Roman civilisation on Europe.^[17]

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.

• 

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

• 

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

• 

  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.

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

	Russia  Kazakhstan	Russia	Russia Pacific Ocean
	Kyrgyzstan  Tajikistan  Afghanistan		Pacific Ocean
		East Asia
	Pakistan  India    Nepal  Bhutan	India  Myanmar  Laos  Vietnam	South China Sea

East Asia Culture Age reckoning Cinema Cultural sphere Languages Music industry Religion Sino-Xenic pronunciations Surnames CJK characters Environment Flora Monsoon Rainy season Politics and economics China–Japan–South Korea trilateral summit Comprehensive Economic Partnership for East Asia East Asia Summit East Asian Community Economy Human rights Ports History History Archaeological cultures Former countries Sports East Asian Games East Asian Football Federation EAFF East Asian Cup East Asian Judo Championships

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