[hanabi]

First of all, while I could see Korea's point, the Japanese hydrographic organization argued that "East Sea" was also unacceptable. "East of where?" is basically what they were asking. The world is round. Are we being Eurocentric here?

Second of all, I can't even believe this is a subject for controversy.

[cstaylor]

I vote for "Sea of Tasty Whale Treats"...

[Mulboyne]

Korea Times: Yahoo Adopts `East Sea' on Map

The U.S.-based portal Web site Yahoo has adopted the term "East Sea" to refer to the waters separating the Korean Peninsula and Japan along with the "Sea of Japan," a South Korean nongovernmental group said Friday. The Voluntary Agency Network of Korea (VANK), which drives online-based campaigns for correct information about Korea, said that it recently discovered that a travel guide site on Yahoo has added the term East Sea. VANK has been requesting the Web site to correct the label "Sea of Japan" since it first found it about a year ago.

[Greji]

I vote for "Sea of Tasty Whale Treats"...

Won't work. All the whales have been researched out!

[Mulboyne]

Mainichi: S. Korean president proposed neutral name for sea between Korea, Japan to resolve row

South Korea's president suggested in talks with Japan's prime minister last year giving a neutral name to the sea between the two countries as a way of resolving a long-running row over what to call it, the presidential office said Monday. Roh Moo-hyun put forward "Sea of Peace" and "Sea of Friendship" as examples of a compromise name for the waters that are called the "East Sea" in both Koreas and the "Sea of Japan" in Japan, an official at Roh's office said on condition of anonymity citing the issue's sensitivity. Roh made the suggestion during a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit in Vietnam in November, the official said. Abe had no immediate response to the offer and the two countries have had no further discussions on the issue, the official said. The previously unannounced proposal was first disclosed in a local newspaper report on Monday.

The country's main opposition party accused Roh of making an "impromptu offer," without seeking national consensus. "It was not a formal proposal, although the idea has been discussed as an alternative," the presidential official said. "The president raised the idea as an example of resolving issues between the two countries from a broader viewpoint." Officials in Tokyo were not available to comment Monday as it was a public holiday.

[FG Lurker]

Korean pettiness makes me laugh. Don't they have any bigger problems than this?

[AssKissinger]

Koreans can call it whatever the fuck they want but I'll be damned if they're gonna dictate to me how to speak my own language.

"Sea of Peace" and "Sea of Friendship"

That's just so they can accuse them of being unreasonable for not letting Koreans tell them how to speak. Why do they give a shit what the Japanese call it?

[GomiGirl]

A rose by any other name and all that....

I guess the Koreans just don't like to be associated with any place that has the word "JAPAN" in it..

I wonder if other countries on the "Indian Ocean" feel the same way...

[Mulboyne]

I wonder if other countries on the "Indian Ocean" feel the same way...

That's one of the points made by the Japanese Foreign Ministry a couple of years ago:

Oceans and seas are frequently named after a major archipelagic arc or a peninsula separating them from another major body of water. Besides the "Sea of Japan," the Andaman Sea, the Gulf of California, and the Irish Sea are good examples of this naming methodology being employed. It is worth mentioning that the Japanese archipelago has a coastline on the Sea of Japan five times longer than the Korean peninsula.

Some oceans and seas take the name of one of the countries they face, such as the Indian Ocean, the East China Sea, the South China Sea, the Norwegian Sea, the Solomon Sea, the Philippine Sea, and the Gulf of Thailand. The fact that a sea carries the names of a country does not connote ownership by the country of the sea in question.

A very few oceans and seas, such as the English Channel/La Manche, are simultaneously named, but only when the two names have been long advocated internationally. Such dual designations are and should remain very exceptional. The "East Sea," first claimed internationally in 1992, is not really eligible for simultaneous designation.

[Mulboyne]

Mainichi: Japan rejects South Korean suggestion of changing name of sea between them

Japan is opposed to a South Korean suggestion of changing the name of the body of water between the two countries, a government spokesman said Tuesday. Japan calls the sea the "Sea of Japan," but South Korea maintains that name is a vestige of Japanese pre-1945 colonial rule and should be "East Sea" instead. "The Sea of Japan is the only name and there is no change in this policy," Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki told reporters. South Korea's president suggested to Japan's prime minister last year that they should give the sea a neutral name to resolve the long-running dispute, the presidential office said Monday.

The sea has long been known internationally as the Sea of Japan, but in recent years South Korea has succeeded in persuading map companies to include "East Sea" as an alternative name. South Korea and Japan are key trade partners, but ties have often been frayed by territorial and historical disputes stemming from Tokyo's 1910-45 colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula. The two countries are also feuding over a pair of islets in the waters between them. The islands are held by South Korea, but Japan considers them part of its territory.

[Taro Toporific]

"Sea of Peace" and "Sea of Friendship"

What do the Chinese and Russians call it?

[Samurai_Jerk]

I think the Japanese should call it the West Sea just to fuck with Koreans.


Chinese map

[Mulboyne]

Yonhap: S. Korea determined to prevent IHO from adopting 'Sea of Japan'

South Korea is determined to prevent an international body from identifying the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan as "Sea of Japan" in its new maps that will be published soon, ahead of the opening of the organization's general assembly Monday. "We will not tolerate the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) continuing to use 'Sea of Japan' alone for the East Sea," a Foreign Ministry official said Sunday. The East Sea is the South Korean name for the waters in question. A South Korean delegation, led by Song Young-wan, director general of the International Organization Bureau at the ministry, left Saturday for Monaco, the venue for the IHO assembly which will last until Friday to update its sea maps. The team consists of officials from the foreign and fishery ministries as well as scholars from state-run research centers.

"We are determined to prevent the IHO assembly from voting on the unilateral use of Sea of Japan," the official said. "If the assembly pushes ahead with a vote, we will have to persuade most countries to abstain."
Seoul officials said Japan has been successfully lobbying to reconfirm Sea of Japan on the new maps, although South Korea wants the IHO to use both East Sea and Sea of Japan. Japan registered Sea of Japan as the official name of the waters with the IHO in the early 1920s when Korea was under Japan's colonial rule. The IHO published its first oceanographic chart for the region in 1929 and has since updated it three times, but the Sea of Japan was used on all of them. Historians say the sea's original name was the East Sea, although the Sea of Japan was adopted after Korea's colonization by Japan and the 1950-53 Korean War. The IHO wants South Korea and Japan to settle the issue themselves.

[Buraku]

S. Korea determined to prevent IHO from adopting Sea of Japan

looks like they will fight this to the end

What do the Chinese and Russians call it?

Chinese call it '&#26085]jAVeFCVevM8[/yt]

[FG Lurker]

The Koreans are fucked up. The sea only exists because of the location of Japan. If Japan was geographically somewhere else then Korea would face directly onto the open Pacific and there would be no sea.

Dumb fucks with too much time on their hands........

[American Oyaji]

The Koreans are fucked up. The sea only exists because of the location of Japan. If Japan was geographically somewhere else then Korea would face directly onto the open Pacific and there would be no sea

Never looked at it like that. Good point

[Mulboyne]

Airang: Use Both Korean, Japanese Names for Disputed Sea
Koreans have long objected to the body of water between Korea and Japan being referred to as the "Sea of Japan," arguing the name is historically inaccurate and politically inappropriate. English-language documents produced in Korea call it the "East Sea," and now the Korean government has proposed that both terms be used internationally. Korean officials confirmed on Saturday that the government submitted its position on the issue to the International Hydrographic Organization, or IHO, which handles the naming of the world's bodies of water. On Friday, North Korea proposed that the two Koreas work together to deal with the naming dispute, and a South Korean organization responded positively, suggesting the North also submit its opinion to the IHO.

[Doctor Stop]

If it passes it would put East Sea on top, in English alphabetical order at least. Who said that South Koreans being better at English wouldn't pay off?

[Pearse]

Some Koreans also got upset when the 2002 World Cup was referred to as the Japan-Korea World Cup. It was officially the 2002 World Cup Korea/Japan but some Japanese had reversed the names. The world nearly came to an end.

[Hikonejou]

Koreans are just like the Ranting Blood-Sucking Chinese...

They bring NO DYNAMICS to the World, excecpt how loud they can Bitch and Complain about the Cultured Nation of Japan.

According to Google Earth: "East Sea" and "Sea of JAPAN"!

[maraboutslim]

The fact that it would just be the Pacific Ocean without Japan is the clincher for Japan Sea making more sense than calling it the East Sea. Well done.

[Doctor Stop]

The fact that it would just be the Pacific Ocean without Japan is the clincher for Japan Sea making more sense than calling it the East Sea.

Without Japan, maybe the Pacific Ocean would be the Korean Ocean.

[Rube]

Korean pettiness makes me laugh. Don't they have any bigger problems than this?

it's all about the claim to the fishng rights and natural gas fields

[Samurai_Jerk]

Without Japan, maybe the Pacific Ocean would be the Korean Ocean.

it's all about the claim to the fishng rights and natural gas fields

How would the name of the sea have any impact on either of those?

[Rube]

How would the name of the sea have any impact on either of those?

It's about international perception and Japan's claim on the islands. Not to long ago America supported Japan's stance and things are changing rapidly now.

[Mulboyne]

[FG Lurker]

Korea: Making Japan look sane for 100s of years.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Korea: Making Japan look sane for 100s of years.

I don't know or care who's right about Takeshima/Dokdo but I can understand why disputed territory gets some people worked up. However, when it comes to telling other countries what they should call a particular geographic location in their own language, SK can fucking suck my vanilla salty balls.

[matsuki]

The Koreans are fucked up. The sea only exists because of the location of Japan. If Japan was geographically somewhere else then Korea would face directly onto the open Pacific and there would be no sea.

Dumb fucks with too much time on their hands........

THIS

I don't know or care who's right about Takeshima/Dokdo but I can understand why disputed territory gets some people worked up. However, when it comes to telling other countries what they should call a particular geographic location in their own language, SK can fucking suck my vanilla salty balls.

...and my peyote salty balls as well.

(especially considering the "sea" is actually west of the U.S. and Japan)

[2triky]

^ Given the consensus above, they might as well call it Sea Deez Nuts.