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East Asia Information

East Asia or Eastern Asia (the latter form preferred by the United Nations) is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical[1] or cultural[2] terms. Geographically and geo-politically, it covers about 12,000,000 km² (4,600,000 sq mi), or about 28 percent of the Asian continent, about 15 percent 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 geographic East Asia, about twice Europe's population. 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.[note 3] 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, 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.

Contents

History

Main article: History of East Asia
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Uses of the term East Asia

Regions of Asia as defined by 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 (officially the Republic of China).[note 4]

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.

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 4] for the purpose of economic and political regionalism and integration. United States foreign policy under the Obama administration considers Southeast Asia a part of East Asia.[13] The tendency of this usage, perhaps, started especially since the publication of World Bank on The East Asian Miracle in 1993 explaining the economic success of the Asian Tiger and emerging Southeast Asian economies (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand). by Asia-wide economic interconnectedness since the co-operation between ASEAN and its three dialogue partners was institutionalized under the ASEAN Plus Three Process (ASEAN+3 or APT) in 1997. The idea of East Asian Community arising from ASEAN+3 framework is also gradually shaping the term East Asia to cover more than China, Korea, Japan and Taiwan. This usage however, is unstable: the East Asian Summit, for instance, includes India and Australia.

East Asia is considered to be a part of the Far East, which describes the region's geographical position in relation to Europe rather than its location within Asia. However, 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, 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".[14][15][16] The Council on Foreign Relations defines Northeast Asia as Japan and Korea.[3]

Territory and region data

Demographics

See also: Ethnic groups of East Asia 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.
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 (ROC) 36,188 23,174,528 639 0.882 Taipei

Economy

Main article: Economy of East Asia
Country GDP nominal millions of USD (2010) GDP nominal per capita USD (2010) GDP PPP millions of USD (2010) GDP PPP per capita USD (2010)
China (PRC) 5,878,257 4,382 10,085,708 7,519
Hong Kong (PRC) 225,003 31,591 322,486 45,277
Japan 5,458,872 42,820 4,309,432 33,805
Macau (PRC) 26,184 47,607 23,582 42,876
Mongolia 5,807 2,111 10,256 3,727
North Korea 27,820 1,159 40,000 1,800
South Korea 1,007,084 20,591 1,457,063 29,791
Taiwan (ROC) 430,580 18,458 821,781 35,227

Cities

Main article: Cities of East Asia

See also

Geography portal
Asia portal
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: East Asia

Notes

  1. ^ The area figure is based on the combined areas of China (including Hong Kong, Macau, Aksai Chin, and Trans-Karakoram Tract), Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam as listed at List of countries and outlying territories by total area.
  2. ^ The population figure is the combined populations of China (Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau), Japan, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan as listed at List of countries by population (last updated Feb 22, 2010).
  3. ^ See List of countries by population density
  4. ^ a b Taiwan (officially the Republic of China) has limited recognition internationally as a sovereign state, see Political status of Taiwan.

References

  1. ^ a b c "East Asia". encarta. Microsoft. Archived from the original on 2009-10-31. http://www.webcitation.org/5kwbU9Hqq. Retrieved 2008-01-12. "East A·sia [ st áyə ] the countries, territories, and regions of China, Hong Kong, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Macau, and Taiwan."
  2. ^ Columbia University - "East Asian cultural sphere" "The East Asian cultural sphere evolves when Japan, Korea, and what is today Vietnam all share adapted elements of Chinese civilization of this period (that of the Tang dynasty), in particular Buddhism, Confucian social and political values, and literary Chinese and its writing system."
  3. ^ a b "Northeast Asia." Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved on August 10, 2009.
  4. ^ Chongho Kim, "Korean Shamanism", 2003 Ashgate Publishing
  5. ^ Andreas Anangguru Yewangoe, "Theologia crucis in Asia", 1987 Rodopi
  6. ^ "Background Note: South Korea". State. U.S. Department of State. http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2800.htm. Retrieved 2000-04-27.
  7. ^ http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/176529/East-Asian-arts/74261/Chinese-visual-arts, Britannica Online Encyclopedia, saying: "The present political boundaries of China, which include Tibet, Inner Mongolia, Sinkiang, and the northeastern provinces formerly called Manchuria, embrace a far larger area of East Asia than will be discussed here...."
  8. ^ Columbia University East Asian Cultural Sphere
  9. ^ R. Keith Schopper's East Asia: Identities and Change in the Modern World
  10. ^ Joshua A. Fogel (UC Santa Barbara/University of Indiana) Nationalism, the Rise of the Vernacular, and the Conceptualization of Modernization in East Asian Comparative Perspective
  11. ^ United Nations Environment Programme (mentions sinosphere countries) Approaches to Solution of Eutrophication [1]
  12. ^ "Encarta Encyclopedia". Archived from the original on 2009-10-31. http://www.webcitation.org/5kwbUdIqJ.
  13. ^ Nanto, Dick K. (2006-09-18). "East Asian Regional Architecture: New Economic and Security Arrangements and U.S. Policy". Congressional Research Service. p. 2. http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/75280.pdf.
  14. ^ Christopher M. Dent (2008). East Asian regionalism. London: Routledge. pp. 1-8.
  15. ^ Charles Harvie, Fukunari Kimura, and Hyun-Hoon Lee (2005), New East Asian regionalism. Cheltenham and Northamton: Edward Elgar, pp.3-6.
  16. ^ Peter J. Katzenstein and Takashi Shiraishi (2006), Beyond Japan: the dynamics of East Asian regionalism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, pp.1-33

External links

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