The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago,

Sakhalin Sakhalin ( rus, Сахали́н, r=Sakhalín, p=səxɐˈlʲin; ja, 樺太 ''Karafuto''; zh, c=, p=Kùyèdǎo, s=库页岛, t=庫頁島; Manchu: ᠰᠠᡥᠠᠯᡳᠶᠠᠨ, ''Sahaliyan''; Orok: Бугата на̄, ''Bugata nā''; Nivkh ...

, the

Korean Peninsula Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic ...

, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the conti ...

. Like the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...

, it has almost no tides due to its nearly complete enclosure from the Pacific Ocean. This isolation also affects faunal diversity and salinity, both of which are lower than in the open ocean. The sea has no large islands, bays or capes. Its water balance is mostly determined by the inflow and outflow through the straits connecting it to the neighboring seas and the Pacific Ocean. Few rivers discharge into the sea and their total contribution to the water exchange is within 1%. The seawater has an elevated concentration of dissolved oxygen that results in high biological productivity. Therefore, fishing is the dominant economic activity in the region. The intensity of shipments across the sea has been moderate owing to political issues, but it is steadily increasing as a result of the growth of East Asian economies.

Names

''Sea of Japan'' is the dominant term used in English for the sea, and the name in most European languages is equivalent, but it is sometimes called by different names in surrounding countries. The sea is called ''Rìběn hǎi'' (日本海, literally "Japan Sea") or originally ''Jīng hǎi'' (鲸海, literally "Whale Sea") in China,2006
“鲸海”这个名字如何改成了“日本海”
. Retrieved on 7 March 2017 ''Yaponskoye more'' (Японское море, literally "Japanese Sea") in Russia, ''Chosŏn Tonghae'' (조선동해, literally "Korean East Sea") in

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...

, and ''Donghae'' (동해, literally "East Sea") in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. A naming dispute exists about the sea name, with South Korea promoting the English translation of its native name as the ''East Sea''.

Naming dispute

The use of the term "Sea of Japan" as the dominant name is a point of contention. South Korea wants the name "East Sea" to be used, either instead of or in addition to "Sea of Japan;"East Sea or "Sea of Japan"
. Korea.net. Retrieved on 21 March 2013.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Korea, 2005 while North Korea prefers the name "East Sea of Korea".
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan The primary issue in the dispute revolves around a disagreement about when the name "Sea of Japan" became the international standard. Japan claims the term has been the international standard since at least the early 19th century, while the Koreas claim that the term "Sea of Japan" arose later while Korea was under Japanese rule, and before that occupation, other names such as "Sea of Korea" or "East Sea" were used in English. The sea is referred to as the Sea of Japan according to the Encyclopædia Britannica. In 2012, the

International Hydrographic Organization The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) is an intergovernmental organisation representing hydrography. , the IHO comprised 98 Member States. A principal aim of the IHO is to ensure that the world's seas, oceans and navigable waters ...

(IHO), the intergovernmental organization that maintains a publication listing the limits of ocean and sea areas around the world, abandoned its most recent of several attempts in the last 25 years to revise its publication of the sea's name. This was primarily because of the lack of agreement between the Koreas and Japan over the naming issue. In September 2020, the IHO announced that it would adopt a new numerical system, also known as "S-130". In November 2020, S-23, the previous version of the nautical chart made in 1953 will be made public as an IHO publication to demonstrate the evolutionary process from the analogue to the digital era. The IHO approved the proposal of the new official nautical chart. The new chart will be marked with a numerical identifier without a name.

History

For centuries, the sea had protected Japan from land invasions, particularly by the Mongols. It had long been navigated by Asian and, from the 18th century, by European ships. Russian expeditions of 1733–1743 mapped Sakhalin and the Japanese islands. In the 1780s, the Frenchman Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse, traveled northward across the sea through the strait later named after him. In 1796, a British naval officer, William Robert Broughton explored the Strait of Tartary, the eastern coast of the Russian Far East and the

. In 1803–1806, the Russian navigator Adam Johann von Krusenstern while sailing across the globe in the ship ''Nadezhda'' also explored, in passing, the Sea of

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

and the eastern shores of Japanese islands. In 1849, another Russian explorer Gennady Nevelskoy discovered the strait between the continent and Sakhalin and mapped the northern part of the Strait of Tartary. Russian expeditions were made in 1853–1854 and 1886–1889 to measure the surface temperatures and record the tides. They also documented the cyclonal character of the sea currents. Other notable expeditions of the 19th century include the

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

North Pacific Exploring and Surveying Expedition (1853–1856) and British Challenger expedition (1872–1876). The aquatic life was described by V. K. Brazhnikov in 1899–1902 and P. Yu. Schmidt in 1903–1904. The Japanese scientific studies of the sea began only in 1915 and became systematic since the 1920s.

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

and

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

whaleships cruised for whales in the sea between 1847 and 1892. Most entered the sea via

Korea Strait The Korea Strait is a sea passage in East Asia between Korea and Japan, connecting the East China Sea, the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Japan in the northwest Pacific Ocean. The strait is split by the Tsushima Island into the Western Channe ...

and left via La Pérouse Strait, but some entered and exited via Tsugaru Strait. They primarily targeted right whales, but began catching humpbacks as right whale catches declined. They also made attempts to catch

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ...

and

fin whale The fin whale (''Balaenoptera physalus''), also known as finback whale or common rorqual and formerly known as herring whale or razorback whale, is a cetacean belonging to the parvorder of baleen whales. It is the second-longest species of ceta ...

s, but these species invariably sank after being killed. Right whales were caught from March to September, with peak catches in May and June. During the peak years of 1848 and 1849 a total of over 170 vessels (over 60 in 1848, and over 110 in 1849) cruised in the Sea of Japan, with significantly lesser numbers in following years.

Geography and geology

The Sea of Japan was landlocked when the land bridge of

East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea ...

existed. The Japan Arc started to form in the Early Miocene. In the Early Miocene the Japan Sea started to open, and the northern and southern parts of the Japanese archipelago separated from each other. During the Miocene, the Sea of Japan expanded. The north part of the Japanese archipelago was further fragmented later until orogenesis of the north-eastern Japanese archipelago began in the later Late Miocene. The south part of the Japanese archipelago remained as a relatively large landmass. The land area had expanded northward in the Late Miocene. The orogenesis of high mountain ranges in north-eastern Japan started in Late Miocene and lasted in

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58 Nowadays the Sea of Japan is bounded by the Russian mainland and

island to the north, the

to the west, and the

ese islands of Hokkaidō, Honshū and Kyūshū to the east and south. It is connected to other seas by five

strait A strait is an oceanic landform connecting two seas or two other large areas of water. The surface water generally flows at the same elevation on both sides and through the strait in either direction. Most commonly, it is a narrow ocean chan ...

s: the Strait of Tartary between the

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

n mainland and Sakhalin; La Pérouse Strait between the Sakhalin and Hokkaidō; the Tsugaru Strait between Hokkaidō and Honshū; the

Kanmon Straits The or the Straits of Shimonoseki is the stretch of water separating Honshu and Kyushu, two of Japan's four main islands. On the Honshu side of the strait is Shimonoseki (, which contributed "Kan" () to the name of the strait) and on the Kyushu ...

between Honshū and Kyūshū; and the

between the

and Kyūshū. The

is composed of the Western Channel and the Tsushima Strait, on either side of

Tsushima Island is an island of the Japanese archipelago situated in-between the Tsushima Strait and Korea Strait, approximately halfway between Kyushu and the Korean Peninsula. The main island of Tsushima, once a single island, was divided into two in 167 ...

. The straits were formed in recent geologic periods. The oldest of them are the Tsugaru and Tsushima straits. Their formation had interrupted the migration of elephants into the Japanese islands at the end of the Neogene Period (about 2.6 million years ago). The most recent is La Perouse Strait, which formed about 60,000 to 11,000 years ago closing the path used by mammoths which had earlier moved to northern Hokkaidō. All the straits are rather shallow with a minimal depth of the order of 100 meters or less. This hinders water exchange, thereby isolating the water and aquatic life of the Sea of Japan from the neighboring seas and oceans. The sea has a surface area of about , a mean depth of and a maximum depth of . It has a carrot-like shape, with the major axis extending from south-west to north-east and a wide southern part narrowing toward the north. The coastal length is about with the largest part () belonging to Russia. The sea extends from north to south for more than and has a maximum width of about .Sea of Japan

Great Soviet Encyclopedia The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; ) is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Bolshaya rossiyskaya e ...

(in Russian) It has three major

basins Basin may refer to: Geography and geology * Depression (geology) ** Back-arc basin, a submarine feature associated with island arcs and subduction zones ** Debris basin, designed to prevent damage from debris flow ** Drainage basin (hydrology), a ...

: the ''Yamato Basin'' in the south-east, the ''Japan Basin'' in the north and the ''

Tsushima Basin The or Ulleung Basin (울릉분지 ulleung bunji) is an oceanic basin located where the Sea of Japan meets the Korea Strait. It lies immediately south of Ulleung-do and Liancourt Rocks, in the eastern end of the South Korean EEZ and the wester ...

(Ulleung Basin)'' in the south-west.Sea of Japan
Encyclopædia Britannica on-line The Japan Basin is of oceanic origin and is the deepest part of the sea, whereas the Tsushima Basin is the shallowest with the depths below . 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 . There are three distinct continental shelves in the northern part (above 44° N). They form a staircase-like structure with the steps slightly inclined southwards and submerged to the depths of , and . The last step sharply drops to the depths of about toward the central (deepest) part of the sea. The bottom of this part is relatively flat, but has a few plateaus. In addition, an underwater ridge rising up to runs from north to south through the middle of the central part. The Japanese coastal area of the sea consists of Okujiri Ridge, Sado Ridge, Hakusan Banks, Wakasa Ridge and Oki Ridge. Yamato Ridge is of continental origin and is composed of

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies un ...

, rhyolite,

andesite Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predo ...

and

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90 ...

. It has an uneven bottom covered with boulders of volcanic rock. Most other areas of the sea are of oceanic origin. Seabed down to is of continental nature and is covered with a mixture of mud, sand, gravel and fragments of rock. The depths between are covered in hemipelagic sediments (i.e., of semi-oceanic origin); these sediments are composed of blue mud rich in organic matter. Pelagic sediments of red mud dominate the deeper regions. There are no large islands in the sea. Most of the smaller ones are near the eastern coast, except for

Ulleungdo Ulleungdo (also spelled Ulreungdo; Hangul: , ) is a South Korean island 120 km (75 mi) east of the Korean Peninsula in the Sea of Japan, formerly known as the Dagelet Island or Argonaut Island in Europe. Volcanic in origin, the rock ...

(South Korea). The most significant islands are Moneron, Rebun, Rishiri, Okushiri, Ōshima, Sado, Okinoshima,

, Askold, Russky and Putyatin. The shorelines are relatively straight and are lacking large bays or capes; the coastal shapes are simplest for Sakhalin and are more winding in the Japanese islands. The largest bays are

Peter the Great Gulf The Peter the Great Gulf (Russian: Залив Петра Великого) is a gulf on the southern coast of Primorsky Krai, Russia, and the largest gulf of the Sea of Japan. The gulf extends for from the Russian-North Korean border at the mo ...

, Sovetskaya Gavan; Vladimira Bay,

Olga Olga may refer to: People and fictional characters * Olga (name), a given name, including a list of people and fictional characters named Olga or Olha * Michael Algar (born 1962), English singer also known as "Olga" Places Russia * Olga, Russia, ...

; Posyet Bay in Russia; East Korea Bay in North Korea; and Ishikari (Hokkaidō), Toyama (Honshū), and Wakasa (Honshū) Bays in Japan. Prominent capes include Lazareva, Peschanyi (sandy), Povorotny, Gromova, Pogibi, Tyk, and Korsakova in Russia; Crillon on

; Sōya, Nosappu,

Tappi TAPPI is a registered not-for-profit, international Non-Governmental Organization of about 14,000 member engineers, scientists, managers, academics and others involved in the areas of pulp, and paper. In addition to pulp and paper, the TAPPI memb ...

, Nyuda, Rebun, Rishiri, Okushiri, Daso and Oki in Japan;A. D. Dobrovolskyi and B. S. Zalogi
Seas of USSR. Sea of Japan
Moscow University (1982) (in Russian) and

Musu Dan Musu Point or Musu Dan ( ko, , , "Cape of the Dancing Water" or "Waters") is a North Korean headland in the middle of the country's eastern coast along the Sea of Japan. It forms the eastern side of North Hamgyong's Hwadae County and the norther ...

in North Korea. As world sea level dropped during the ice cap advances of the last Ice Age, the exit straits of the Sea of Japan one by one dried and closed. There is controversy as to whether or not in each ice cap advance the world sea level fell low enough for the deepest, the western channel of the

, to dry and close, turning the Sea of Japan into a huge cold inland lake with a surface layer of fresh water, freezing over in the winters. File:Январское побережье Японского моря в Хасанском районе.jpg, The Sea of Japan seen from the south of Slavyanka. From a distance, the two islands of Antipenko (left) and Sibiryakov (right). File:Бухта Сибирякова.jpg, A bay at

Sibiryakov Island Sibiryakov Island or Sibiryakow Island (russian: Остров Сибирякова, ''Ostrov Sibiryakova''), also known as Kuz'kin Island (Кузькин остров), is an island of . Its length is and its maximum width . It is covered with ...

, south from Vladivostok File:Закат на Воеводского.jpg, Sunset on near Vladivostok

Climate

Von Karman vortices off Rishiri Island, Japan

The sea climate is characterized by warm waters and monsoons. This combination results in strong evaporation, which is especially noticeable between October and March when the strong ( or higher) north-western monsoon wind brings cold and dry continental air. The evaporation is blown further south causing snowfall in the mountainous western coasts of Japan. This winter monsoon brings typhoons and storms with the waves reaching which erode the western coasts of Japan. Tsunami waves were also recorded in the sea. In addition, the monsoon enhances the surface water convection, down to the depths of . The coldest months are January and February with the average air temperature of in the north and in the south. The northern one-quarter of the sea, particularly the Siberian coast and the Strait of Tartary, freezes for about 4−5 months. The timing and extent of freezing vary from year to year, so ice may start forming in the bays as early as in October and its remains may be seen even in June. Ice cover is continuous only in the bays and forms floating patches in the open sea. Ice melting in spring results in cold currents in the northern areas. In summer the wind weakens to and reverses its direction, blowing warm and humid air from the North Pacific onto the Asian mainland. The warmest month is August with the average air temperature of in the north and in the south. Annual precipitation increases from in the north-west to in the south-east. A peculiar turbulent cloud pattern, named von Kármán vortices, is sometimes observed over the Sea of Japan. It requires a stable field of low clouds driven by the wind over a small (isolated) and tall obstacle, and usually forms over small mountainous islands. The Sea of Japan meets these conditions as it has frequent winds and cloudy skies, as well as compact, tall islands such as Rishiri (),

() and Ōshima ().

Extent

The

defines the limits of the "Japan Sea" as follows:

Hydrology

The sea currents circulate in the counterclockwise direction. The Kuroshio (Japan Current), the Tsushima Current and the East Korea Warm Current bring warmer and more saline water to the north. There they merge into the Tsugaru Current and flow into the Pacific Ocean through the Tsugaru Strait. They also feed the Sōya Current and exit through the La Perouse Strait to the Sea of Okhotsk. The returning branch is composed of the Liman, North Korea and Central (or Mid-) Japan Sea currents which bring fresh and cold water along the Asian coast to the south. Water temperature is mostly affected by exchange with the atmosphere in the northern part of the sea and by the currents in the southern part. Winter temperatures are or below in the north and in the south. In this season, there is a significant temperature difference between the western and eastern parts owing to the circular currents. So at the latitude of Peter the Great Gulf, the water temperature is about in the west and in the east. This east-west difference drops to in summer, and the temperatures rise to in the north and in the south. As a result of the enclosed nature of the sea, its waters form clearly separated layers which may show seasonal and spatial dependence. In winter, the temperature is almost constant with the depth in the northern part of the sea. However, in central-southern parts, it may be down to , at , at and then remain at about until the bottom. Heating by the sun and tropical monsoons increases the depth gradient in spring–summer. In the north the surface layer (down to ) may heat up to . The temperature would sharply drop to at , then slowly decrease to at and remain so down to the seabed. On the contrary, the temperature in the south could gradually decrease to at , then to at and to at , but then it would rise to about near the bottom. This cold layer at about is formed by sinking of cold water in the northern part of the sea in winter and is brought south by the sea currents; it is rather stable and is observed all through the year. The hydrological isolation of the Sea of

also results in slightly lower average water salinity (34.09‰, where ‰ means parts per thousand) compared with the Pacific Ocean. In winter, the highest salinity at 34.5‰ is observed in the south where evaporation dominates over precipitation. It is the lowest at 33.8‰ in the south-east and south-west because of frequent rains and remains at about 34.09‰ in most other parts. Thawing of ice in spring reduces water salinity in the north, but it remains high at 34.60–34.70‰ in the south, partly because of the inflow of salty water through the

. A typical variation of salinity across the sea in summer is 31.5‰ to 34.5‰ from north to south. The depth distribution of salinity is relatively constant. The surface layer tends to be more fresh in the sea parts which experience ice melting and rains. The average water density is 1.0270 g/cm³ in the north and 1.0255 g/cm³ in the south in winter. It lowers in summer to 1.0253 and 1.0215 g/cm³, respectively. Few rivers flow into the Sea of

from mainland

, the largest being Tumen, Rudnaya, Samarga, Partizanskaya and Tumnin; all of them have mountainous character. In contrast, numerous large rivers flow from Honshū and Hokkaidō into the sea, including Japan's four largest rivers in the Shinano, Ishikari, Agano and Mogami. The total annual river discharge into the sea is and is relatively constant through the year, except for a minor increase in July. Most water (97% or ) flows into the sea through the Korea Strait and discharges through the Tsugaru (64% or , La Pérouse ) and Korea straits. Rainfall, evaporation and riverine inflow make only 1% of the water balance. Between October and April, the outflow exceeds the inflow due to the lower income through the Korea Strait; this balance reverses between May and September. The sea has complex tides, which are induced by the tidal wave of the Pacific Ocean penetrating through the

and Tsugaru strait. The tides are semi-diurnal (rise twice a day) in the Korea Strait and in the northern part of the Strait of Tartary. They are diurnal at the eastern shore of Korea, Russian Far East and the Japanese islands of Honshū and Hokkaidō. Mixed tides occur in

and Korea strait. The tidal waves have a speed of in the open sea. They accelerate in the Korea Strait (), La Pérouse Strait () and especially in the Tsugaru Strait (). The amplitude of the tides is relatively low and strongly varies across the sea. It reaches 3 meters in the south near the

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic ...

Strait, but quickly drops northwards to at the southern tip of Korean Peninsula and to meters at the North Korean shores. Similar low tides are observed in Hokkaidō, Honshū and south Sakhalin. The amplitude however increases to toward the north of the Strait of Tartary due to its funnel-like shape. Apart from tides, the water level also experiences seasonal, monsoon-related variations across the entire sea with the highest levels observed in summer and lowest in winter. Wind may also locally change the water level by ; for example, it is higher in summer at the Korean and lower at the Japanese coasts. The sea waters have blue to green-blue color and a transparency of about . They are rich in dissolved oxygen, especially in the western and northern parts, which are colder and have more phytoplankton than the eastern and southern areas. The oxygen concentration is 95% of the saturation point near the surface, it decreases with the depth to about 70% at .

Flora and fauna

The high concentration of dissolved

oxygen Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements ...

results in the rich aquatic life of the Sea of Japan – there are more than 800 species of aquatic plants and more than 3,500 animal species, including more than 900 species of crustaceans, about 1,000 of fish and 26 of mammals. The coastal areas contain several kg/m² of biomass.

Pelagic The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean, and can be further divided into regions by depth (as illustrated on the right). The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or w ...

(oceanic) fishes include saury, mackerel, Jack mackerels, sardines, anchovies, herring, sea bream, squid and various species of salmon and trout. The demersal (sea-bottom) fishes include cod, pollock and

Atka mackerel The Atka mackerel (''Pleurogrammus monopterygius'') is a mackerel in the family Hexagrammidae. Atka mackerel are common in the northern Pacific ocean, and are one of only two members of the genus '' Pleurogrammus'' - the other being the Arabes ...

. Mammals are represented by seals and whales (ancient name for the basin in Chinese was "Sea of Whales"), and the crustaceans by shrimps and crabs. Because of the shallow straits connecting the sea with Pacific Ocean, the Sea of Japan has no characteristic oceanic deep-water fauna. Flora and fauna unique to the region near the Sea of Japan are known as "Japan Sea elements".Kameda Y. & Kato M. (2011). "Terrestrial invasion of pomatiopsid gastropods in the heavy-snow region of the Japanese Archipelago". '' BMC Evolutionary Biology'' 11: 118. .

Economy

Fishery had long been the main economic activity on the Sea of Japan. It is mainly carried out on and near the continental shelves and focuses on herring, sardines and bluefin tuna. These species are however depleted from after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. Squid is mostly caught near the sea center and salmon near the northern and south-western shores. There is also a well-developed seaweed production. The importance of the fishery in the sea is illustrated by the territorial disputes between Japan and South Korea over Liancourt Rocks and between Japan and Russia over the

Kuril Islands The Kuril Islands or Kurile Islands (; rus, Кури́льские острова́, r=Kuril'skiye ostrova, p=kʊˈrʲilʲskʲɪjə ɐstrɐˈva; Japanese language, Japanese: or ) are a volcanic archipelago currently administered as part of Sakh ...

. It is also reflected in various legends, such as the legend of the Heishi rock, which says that once when herring vanished, an old fairy threw a bottle with magic water into the sea, and the herring returned. The bottle got stuck to the seabed and turned into a rock, which became a representation of the God of the Sea of Japan.かもめ島
Esashi Town Guide (in Japanese) Vladivostok is a base for the Russian whaling fleet. Although it operates in the northern seas, its production is processed and partly distributed in the Vladivostok area. Vladivostok is also a terminal point of the Trans-Siberian Railway which brings many goods to and from this major port. There is a regular ferry service across the Strait of Tartary between the Russian continental port of Vanino and Kholmsk in Sakhalin. The sea has

magnetite Magnetite is a mineral and one of the main iron ores, with the chemical formula Fe2+Fe3+2O4. It is one of the oxides of iron, and is ferrimagnetic; it is attracted to a magnet and can be magnetized to become a permanent magnet itself. With ...

sands as well as

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbon d ...

and

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...

fields near the northern part of Japan and Sakhalin Island. The intensity of shipments across the sea is moderate, owing to the cold relations between many bordering countries. As a result, the largest Japanese ports are on the Pacific coast, and the significant ports on the Sea of Japan are Niigata, Tsuruta and Maizuru. Major South Korean ports are

Busan Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea ...

, Ulsan, and

Pohang Pohang () is a city in the province of North Gyeongsang, South Korea, and a main seaport in the Daegu-Gyeongbuk region. The built-up area of Pohang is located on the alluvium of the mouth of the Hyeongsan River. The city is divided into t ...

situated on the south-eastern coast of the Korean Peninsula, but they also mainly target countries not bordering the Sea of Japan. The major

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

n port of Vladivostok mainly serves inland cargos, whereas

Nakhodka Nakhodka ( rus, Нахо́дка, p=nɐˈxotkə) is a port city in Primorsky Krai, Russia, located on the Trudny Peninsula jutting into the Nakhodka Bay of the Sea of Japan, about east of Vladivostok, the administrative center of the kra ...

and Vostochny are more international and have a busy exchange with

and

. Other prominent Russian ports are Sovetskaya Gavan, Alexandrovsk-Sakhalinsky and Kholmsk, and the major ports of North Korea are Wonsan, Hamhung and Chongjin. The intensity of shipments across the Sea of Japan is steadily increasing as a result of the growth of East Asian economies.

References

This article incorporates CC-BY-2.0 text from this reference:

External links

* *
"The Issue of Name "Sea of Japan""
MOFA, Japan, 7 February 2017.　 ** MOFA, Japan (10 August 2021)
"Sea of Japan - The one and only name recognized by the international community" (Digest version)
''YouTube''. {{Authority control Miocene Asia Marine ecoregions Temperate Northern Pacific