East Asia
| Area | 11,839,074 km²[1] |
|---|---|
| Population | 1,555,784,500[2] |
| Density | 131 per km² |
| Countries and Territories | Mainland China Hong Kong Japan Macau Mongolia North Korea South Korea Taiwan |
| Languages and language families | Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, and many others |
| Time zones | UTC +7:00 (Western Mongolia) to UTC +9:00 (Japan and Korean Peninsula) |
| Capital cities | Beijing Pyongyang Seoul Taipei[3] Tokyo Ulan Bator |
| Other major cities | Busan, Guangzhou Hong Kong, Kaohsiung, Osaka, Shanghai, Yokohama. |
East Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical[4] or cultural[5] terms. Geographically, it covers about 12,000,000 km², or about 28 percent of the Asian continent, about 15 percent bigger than the area of Europe. More than 1.5 billion people, about 40 percent of the population of Asia or a quarter of all the people in the world, live in geographic East Asia, which is about twice the population of Europe. The region is one of the world's most crowded places. The population density of East Asia, 131 per km², is about three times the world average of 45 per km².[6]
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. Major religions include Buddhism (mostly Mahayana), Confucianism or Neo-Confucianism, Taoism, and Chinese folk religion, and Shinto in Japan.
This combination of language, political philosophy, and religion (as well as art, architecture, holidays and festivals, etc.) overlaps with the geographical designation of East Asia for the most part,[citation needed] with a few exceptions, such as the overseas Chinese (including those in Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the West).
East Asia and Eastern Asia (the latter form preferred by the United Nations) are both more modern terms for the traditional name the Far East[7], 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.
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The following political entities are consistently seen as located in geographic East Asia:[4]
Hong Kong and 
Macau)
Japan
South Korea (Republic of Korea)
North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea)
Republic of China (Taiwan)[8]| East Asia | |||||||||||||||||
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| Geographical East Asia | |||||||||||||||||
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| Geographic East Asia shaded in dark green, cultural and other possible definitions shaded in light green, with Central Asian portion of the PRC in an intermediate green.[9][10][11][12][13][14] | |||||||||||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese: | 東亞 | ||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese: | 东亚 | ||||||||||||||||
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| Japanese name | |||||||||||||||||
| Kanji: | 東亜 | ||||||||||||||||
| Kana: | ひがしアジア | ||||||||||||||||
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| Korean name | |||||||||||||||||
| Hangul: | 동아시아 | ||||||||||||||||
| Hanja: | 東亞細亞 | ||||||||||||||||
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| Mongolian name | |||||||||||||||||
| Mongolian: | Зүүн Ази ᠵᠤᠨ ᠠᠵᠢ Züün Azi |
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| Russian name | |||||||||||||||||
| Russian: | Восточная Азия | ||||||||||||||||
| Romanization: | Vostochnaja Azija | ||||||||||||||||
| Vietnamese name | |||||||||||||||||
| Quốc ngữ: | Đông Á | ||||||||||||||||
| Hán tự: | 東亞 | ||||||||||||||||
In addition the following countries are sometimes included in the definition of East Asia
The following peoples or societies are commonly seen as being encompassed by cultural East Asia:[16][17][18][19]
Some consider the following countries or regions as part of East Asia, while others do not.[citation needed] Disagreements hinge on the difference between the cultural and geographic definitions of the term. Political perspective is also an important factor. In descending order in terms of the frequency with which they are described as East Asian:[citation needed]
Mongolia (considered either East Asia or Central Asia—here culture and/or geography may be at issue)
Singapore (considered either East Asia or Southeast Asia—here the primary question is geographic)
Vietnam (considered either East Asia or Southeast Asia—here the primary question is geographic)
Russian Far East (considered either East Asia or North Asia—here the primary question is political, with culture and geography also at issue)In infrequent circumstances, the term East Asia is purposefully used to include all countries in Southeast Asia, especially when used in dualism with the term West Asia, the latter of which is then used to include those regions commonly considered West Asia, Central Asia and Southwest Asia.[citation needed]
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