[1] As of 2016, members of ASEAN include Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
[2] While the term "Southeast Asia" was first used in connection with the present region by American priest and educator Howard Malcom in 1837, the region presently referred to as Southeast Asia was split between India and the Far East by anglophone scholars prior to the Second World War and de-emphasized as an area of study due to the presence of national interests in the region.
[3] Initial inquiries into the culture and traditions of Southeast Asia were primarily conducted by German and Austrian scholars who had greater access to the region because their home countries had no colonies in the region[3] The strategic importance of numerous locales in Southeast Asia such as the Dutch East Indies and the Philippines during the Second World War attracted increased attention from the West.
[6] In Korea, academics began forming groups focusing on the region of Southeast Asia in the 1990s.
[7] Southeast Asian Studies is also the English name of the Japanese scholarly journal Tonan Ajia Kenkyu.