First, legal reason. The East Sea is adjacent to four countries, South Korea, Russia, North Korea, and Japan. It also consists of territorial waters of several countries and the exclusive economic zone(EEZ). According to international rules, names of the sea shared by two or more countries should be determined through consultation between the countries concerned. If not, it is reasonable to write side-by-side the names that those countries use. These general principals are also mentioned by international hydrographic organization(IHO) and by U.N. conference of standardization of geographical names(UNCSGN).
Also, historical reason. The term 'East Sea' has been used for more than 2000 years, and Samguksagi(三國史記), King Dongmyeong's episode, Eight State Map(八道總圖) as well as a variety of historical maps and records support this fact. In contrast, the term 'Mer du Japon' was first used in great universal geographic map(坤與萬國全圖) by Matteo Ricci in 1602.
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