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)
Countries 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 Guangzhou  Hong Kong Incheon Kaohsiung  Macau Nagoya New Taipei Osaka Shanghai Taichung Tianjin Yokohama (see list)

East Asia, core areas are in dark green, other areas sometimes considered part of it are in light green

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^[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 or 22% 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, it 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.^[3] Major religions include Buddhism (mostly Mahayana), Confucianism or Neo-Confucianism, Taoism, Chinese folk religion in China, Shinto in Japan, Taoism in Taiwan, 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 Chinese Dynasties that dominated in trade as well as military, 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 a consideration level of cultural and religion exchange between the Chinese and other regional Dynasties and Kingdoms.

As connections began to strengthen with the Western world, Chinese power began to diminish. Japan took the opportunity to begin conquering colonies. At the time of WWII, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan and the Northeastern part of China were all under Japanese control. It was not until the end of WWII when Korea and Taiwan had a chance to free from Japan.

Uses of the term East Asia

Regions of Asia as defined by the UN:

  North Asia

  Central Asia

  Southwest Asia

  South Asia

  East Asia

  Southeast Asia

The UN subregion of Eastern Asia and other common definitions^[1] of East Asia contain the entirety of the People's Republic of China,^[7] Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Mongolia^[1] and Taiwan.^{[note 3]}

Culturally, China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam are commonly seen as being encompassed by cultural East Asia.^{[8][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 part of the Sinosphere, politically, it is related to both Southeast Asia and People's Republic of China)
• Siberia in Russia^[12] (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)

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".^[13][14][15] The Council on Foreign Relations defines Northeast Asia as Japan and Korea.^[3]

Territory and region data

Demographics

Country	Area km²	Population	Population density per km²	HDI (2011)	Capital
China (PRC)	9,596,961	1,339,724,852	138	0.687	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	99,828	48,988,833	500	0.897	Seoul
Taiwan	36,188	23,174,528	639	0.882	Taipei

Economy

Country	GDP nominal millions of USD (2011)	GDP nominal per capita USD (2011)	GDP PPP millions of USD (2011)	GDP PPP per capita USD (2011)
China (PRC)	7,298,147	5,414	11,299,967	8,382
Hong Kong (PRC)	243,302	34,049	351,119	49,300
Japan	5,869,471	45,920	4,440,376	34,740
Macau (PRC)	27,850	51,397	32,208	42,876
Mongolia	8,506	3,042	13,264	4,744
North Korea	27,820	1,159	40,000	1,800
South Korea	1,116,247	22,778	1,554,149	31,714
Taiwan	466,832	20,101	876,035	37,720

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.

Menu

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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 languages
• East Asian calligraphy
• Four Asian Tigers
• Sinosphere
• China–Japan–South Korea trilateral summit

Notes

References

External links

	Geography portal
	Asia portal

• High resolution map of East Asian region

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