East Asia

The economy of East Asia is one of the most successful regional economies of the world. Today,  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 which comprises China (inclusive of Hong Kong, and Macau), Taiwan, Japan, North Korea, South Korea and Mongolia.

Historically, many societies in East Asia have been part of the Chinese cultural sphere, where languages such as Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese have shared roots in Chinese characters (hanzi). They have been adapted to write a number of other languages including: Japanese, where they are known as kanji, Korean, where they are known as hanja, and Vietnamese in a system known as chữ Nôm. 

The countries of China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam share a Confucian philosophical worldview. Confucianism, an existential and political philosophy that originated in China and spread through east and Southeast Asia, is often mentioned as the reason behind the rapid growth of the Asian "Tiger" economies. Confucianism is a humanistic philosophy that believes that human beings are teachable, improvable and perfectible through personal and communal endeavour especially including self-cultivation and self-creation.

However, stability in the region does not come easily. Wars in East Asia-began with armed struggle between China and Japan in 1894-95 to determine the fate of Korea and culminated with eight years of bitter conflict during World War II-claimed tens of millions of lives. Memories of the Nanjing massacre, the sexual exploitation of "comfort Women," criminal medical experimentation, slave labor, and other such atrocities committed more than half a century ago still affect relations of the three great nations of East Asia today. While the peoples of East Asia are increasingly engaged in trade and cultural exchange, they are also arming themselves against the prospect of future belligerence.