East Asia

East Asia or Eastern Asia is the eastern subregion of the Eurasian continent, which can be defined in either geographical or 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, 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. 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.

East Asia (disambiguation)

East Asia or Eastern Asia can refer to:

East Asia (album)

East Asia is the 20th studio album recorded by Japanese singer-songwriter Miyuki Nakajima, released in October 1992.

The album features "Shallow Sleep (Asai Nemuri)", a hit single released in July 1992. Nakajima wrote the song as a theme for Shin'ai Naru Mono e, a television drama that she made guest appearance as a doctor. Shin'ai Naru Mono e's themes song peaked at #2 on the Japan's Oricon chart in summer of 1992, and thus became her first single. This song has sold more than a million copies.

Prior to the release of the album Shin'ai Naru Mono e, the songs "Two Boats" and "Haginohara" were already performed on Yakai, which are experimental theaters Nakajima has performed annually since 1989.

"Thread (Ito)" is a love song Nakajima dedicated to Zenji Nakayama, a later leader of Tenrikyo who got married at that time. In 1998, it was featured on the television drama Seija no Koushin and was also released as a double A-Side single with "Another Name for Life". This song has become well-known through a cover version recorded by the Bank Band, a project which Kazutoshi Sakurai and Takeshi Kobayashi launched for a charity. Their interpretation, featuring Sakurai's vocals, was included on their 2004 Soushi Souai album.