East Asia

For other uses, see East Asia (disambiguation).

East Asia
States and territories	China Hong Kong Macau Japan North Korea South Korea Mongolia Taiwan
Capital cities	Beijing Tokyo Pyongyang Seoul Ulaanbaatar Taipei
Major cities	List Busan Chongqing Daegu Guangzhou Hong Kong Incheon Kaohsiung Macau Nagoya Osaka Shanghai Shenzhen Tianjin Yokohama Others
Area
• Total	11,839,074 km2 (4,571,092 sq mi)
Population
• 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
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese	东亚/东亚细亚
Traditional Chinese	東亞/東亞細亞
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Dōngyà or Dōng Yàxìyà Wade–Giles Tung1-ya3 Wu Romanization ton平 ia去 Gan Romanization Tung1 nga3 Hakka Romanization dung24 a31 Yue: Cantonese Jyutping dung1 aa3 Southern Min Hokkien POJ Tang-a
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese alphabet	Đông Á
Korean name
Hangul	동아시아/동아세아/동아
Hanja	東아시아/東亞細亞/東亞
Transcriptions Revised Romanization Dong Asia/Dong Asea/Dong A
Mongolian name
Mongolian	Зүүн Ази ᠵᠡᠭᠦᠨ ᠠᠽᠢ
Japanese name
Kanji	東亜細亜（東アジア）/東亜
Kana	ひがしアジア/とうあ
Kyūjitai	東亞細亞/東亞
Transcriptions Revised Hepburn Higashi Ajia/Tō-A Kunrei-shiki Higasi Azia/Tou-A
Russian name
Russian	Восточная Азия
Romanization	Vostochnaja Azija

East Asia is the eastern subregion of the Asian continent, which can be defined in either geographical or ethno-cultural 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, 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. 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, and recently Christianity in South Korea. The Chinese Calendar is the root from which many other East Asian calendars are derived.

History

Main article: History of East Asia

Chinese Dynasties dominated the region in matters of culture, trade, and exploration as well as militarily for a very long time. 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, Republic of China, northeastern and eastern part of China, and Vietnam all fell under Japanese control. Following Japan's defeat in the war, the Korean peninsula became independent, while Taiwan returned to be part of the Republic of China after the Chinese Civil War.

United Nations Statistics Division

East Asia map of Köppen climate classification.

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

  North Asia

  Central Asia

  Western Asia

  South Asia

  East Asia

  Southeast Asia

The UNSD definition of East Asia is based on statistical convenience, but also other common definitions of East Asia contain the entirety of China (including Hong Kong and Macau), Republic of China, Mongolia, Japan, North Korea and South Korea.

Culturally, China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam are commonly seen as being encompassed by cultural East Asia (East Asian cultural sphere).

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

In business and economics, "East Asia" has sometimes been used to refer to a wide geographical area covering ten Southeast Asian countries in ASEAN, People's Republic of China, Republic of China (Taiwan), Japan and South Korea. However, in this context, the term "Far East" is often more appropriate which covers ASEAN countries and the 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 East Asia, Southeast Asia as well as Oceania.

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 seen in economic and diplomatic discussions, is at odds with the historical meanings of both "East Asia" and "Northeast Asia". The Council on Foreign Relations defines Northeast Asia as Japan and Korea.

Territory and region data

Demographics

See also: Ethnic groups of East Asia

Country or region	Area km²	Population	Population density per km²	HDI (2015)	Capital
China	9,640,011	1,373,000,000	138	0.727	Beijing
Hong Kong	1,104	7,298,600	6,390	0.912	Hong Kong
Japan	377,930	126,890,000	337	0.891	Tokyo
Macau	30	642,900	18,662	0.892	Macau
Mongolia	1,564,100	3,041,648	2	0.698	Ulaanbaatar
North Korea	120,538	25,155,000	198	0.595	Pyongyang
South Korea	100,210	51,482,816	500	0.898	Seoul
Taiwan	36,188	23,468,748	639	0.884	Taipei

Economy

Main article: Economy of East Asia

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 the higher IQ of East Asians as compared to other races, 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)	GDP nominal per capita USD (2015)	GDP PPP millions of USD (2015)	GDP PPP per capita USD (2015)
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

Main article: East Asian cultural sphere

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. The relationship between China and East Asia has been compared to the historical influence of Greco-Roman civilisation on Europe.

Cities

Main article: Cities of East Asia

• 

  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 centre of mainland China.

• 

  Taipei is the capital of Taiwan (Republic of China) and is one of the world's leading technical centres in East 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 as a cosmopolitan metropolis.

• 

  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

• Economy of East Asia
• 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

External links

• East Asia travel guide from Wikivoyage
• High resolution map of East Asian region