Far East

The Far East is the geographical region that encompasses the easternmost portion of the Asian continent, including East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Russian Far East. South Asia is sometimes also included in the definition of the term. In modern times, the term Far East has widely fallen out of use and been replaced by Asia-Pacific, while the terms Middle East and Near East, although now pertaining to different territories, are still commonly used today. The term first came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 15th century, particularly the British, denoting the Far East as the "farthest" of the three "Easts", beyond the Near East and the Middle East. Likewise, during the Qing dynasty of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the term "Tàixī (泰西)" – i.e., anything further west than the Arab world – was used to refer to the Western countries. Since the mid-20th century, the term has mostly gone out of use for the region in international mass media outlets due to its perceived Eurocentric connotations. North Asia is sometimes excluded due to cultural and ethnic differences. The term is still used in Russia to refer to its sparsely populated easternmost regions (being "far" in this case from the political, economic and cultural centres, Moscow and Saint Petersburg).