East Asia
The word Asia is usually traced to a Semitic root for the rising sun. East Asia doubles that direction, and Japanese writes the second half of 東アジア in katakana, the script kept for imported words. East Asia names the eastern rim of the Asian mainland and the islands off it, the ground English atlases once called the Far East.
8 countries
Common questions
Questions about East Asia
Which countries are in East Asia?
China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea and Taiwan, following the United Nations grouping for Eastern Asia. Hong Kong and Macau are filed as dependencies of China, and Taiwan is filed with its status recorded as disputed.
Is Mongolia in East Asia?
On the United Nations M49 grouping, yes: Mongolia is filed under Eastern Asia, and the catalogue follows that. A second reading puts it in Inner or Central Asia instead, on the grounds that it has no coastline, borders only China and Russia, and lies on a steppe that continues west. Both readings are in print, and the catalogue records the one it files.
Is Taiwan listed as a separate country here?
Taiwan has a page of its own, and its sovereignty is recorded as disputed rather than resolved. It is governed from Taipei as the Republic of China, the People's Republic of China claims it, and the site takes no position on that. Where international bodies seat it, they use agreed names: Chinese Taipei at Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, and the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu at the World Trade Organization.
What is the difference between East Asia and the Far East?
The ground is much the same and the vantage point is not. Far East was an English phrase measured from Europe, alongside Near East and Middle East, and East Asia replaced it in most official use during the twentieth century. The United Nations files the region as Eastern Asia.
Why do Hong Kong and Macau have pages of their own?
Both are special administrative regions of China, transferred on 1 July 1997 and 20 December 1999, and both keep a separate currency, legislature, internet domain and customs territory. That is enough for a record of their own, so the catalogue files each as a dependency of China rather than folding it into the Chinese record.