East Asia
| Area | 11,839,074 km² |
|---|---|
| Population | 1,555,784,500 |
| Density | 131 per km² |
| Countries | China (PRC) Japan North Korea South Korea Mongolia Taiwan (ROC) |
| Languages | Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, Taiwanese, and many others |
| Time zones | UTC +7:00 (Western Mongolia) to UTC +9:00 (Japan and Korean Peninsula) |
| Capital cities | Beijing Pyongyang Seoul Taipei Tokyo Ulan Bator |
| Other major cities | Busan, Hong Kong, Osaka, Shanghai, Yokohama |
East Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural 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.
Historically, many societies in East Asia have been part of the Chinese cultural sphere, and East Asian languages/scrips are are often derived from Classical Chinese and Chinese script. Major religions include Buddhism (Mahayana and Chan/Zen), Confucianism and 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, 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 , 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.
