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Sea of Japan

Korean name

Hangul

조선동해

Hanja

朝鮮東海

Transcriptions
Revised Romanization	Joseon Donghae
McCune–Reischauer	Chosŏn Tonghae

Alternative Korean name

Hangul

동해

Hanja

東海

Transcriptions
Revised Romanization	Donghae
McCune–Reischauer	Tonghae

Japanese name

Kanji

日本海

Hiragana

にほんかい

The Sea of Japan is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean, bordered by Japan, Korea and Russia and is referred to in South Korea as the East Sea. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it has almost no tides due to its nearly complete enclosure.

Physical characteristics

The Sea of Japan is bound by the Russian mainland and Sakhalin island to the north, the Korean Peninsula to the west, and the Japanese islands of Hokkaidō, Honshū, and Kyūshū to the east.

It is connected to other seas by five shallow straits: the Strait of Tartary between the Asian mainland and Sakhalin; La Perouse Strait between the islands of Sakhalin and Hokkaidō; the Tsugaru Strait between the islands of Hokkaidō and Honshū; the Kanmon Straits between the islands of Honshū and Kyūshū; and the Korea Strait (genkainada) between the Korean Peninsula and the island of Kyūshū. The Korea Strait is composed of the Western Channel and the Tsushima Strait, on either side of Tsushima Island.

Deepest point: 3,742 meters below sea level
Mean depth: 1,753 meters
Surface area: about 978,000 km²

The sea has three major basins: the Yamato Basin in the southeast; the Japan Basin in the north; and the Tsushima Basin (Ulleung Basin) in the southwest. The Japan Basin has the deepest areas of the sea, while the Tsushima Basin has the shallowest.

On the eastern shores, the continental shelves of the sea are wide, but on the western shores, particularly along the Korean coast, they are narrow, averaging about 30 kilometres wide.

The Tsushima Warm Current, a branch of Kuroshio Current, flows northward through the Korea Strait along the Japanese shore, and the Liman Cold Current flows southward through the Strait of Tartary along the Russian shore.

The Sea of Japan was once a landlocked sea when the land bridge of East Asia existed.

Economy

The areas in the north and the southeast are rich fishing grounds. The importance of the fishery in the sea is well illustrated by the dispute between South Korea and Japan over Liancourt Rocks. The sea is also important for its mineral deposits, particularly magnetite sands. There are also believed to be natural gas and petroleum fields. With the growth of East Asian economies, the Sea of Japan has become an increasingly important commercial waterway.

Biology

The last documented observation of the Japanese Sea Lion (Zalophus californianus japonicus) was a sighting of 50 or 60 individuals on Liancourt Rocks in 1951. These animals bred in flat, open, sandy beaches and were indigenous to the Northwest Pacific shores of Japan and the Korean Peninsula. Hunted to extinction by fishermen, there is some disagreement as to whether the Japanese Sea Lion were a distinct species or a subspecies of the California Sea Lion.

Naming dispute

Main article: Sea of Japan naming dispute

The name of the water is disputed. While Sea of Japan is the commonly used term to refer to the sea amongst most other countries, both North Korea and South Korea have advocated for different names to be used, either instead of or concurrent with "Sea of Japan". North Korea proposes the "East Sea of Korea" while South Korea proposes the "East Sea", or the "Sea of Korea/Korean Sea" As a result of Korean objections to the name "Sea of Japan", some English-language publications refer to it as "Sea of Japan (East Sea)", incorporating a version of the Korean name.

On August 27, 2007, both Korean states made proposals to the Ninth Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names institued by the United Nations, asking for the official adoption of their respective preferred names. The conference made no decision on the issue but called on all parties to find a commonly accepted solution. The chairman of the session stated that "individual countries could not impose specific names on the international community and standardization could only be promoted when a consensus existed". In practice, this meant that UN institutions would continue to use the name "Sea of Japan".