The journal is designed as an international forum for contributions related to the history of exchange relations in the East Asian world. The “East Asian World” in this context comprises geographically speaking the regions of China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan (core region) and their neighbours or regions that were considered their “peripheries” (such as for example Mongolia, Tibet, Vietnam etc.), including relevant predecessors (such as the Ryūkyūs, Bohai or Manchuria). Exchange relations and interaction with countries and regions beyond this East Asian world, like India, Russia and all the countries on the Eurasian continent, continental and insular Southeast Asia, regions around the Persian Gulf and generally the macro-region of what is designated as the "Oriental world" - in contrast to "Occidental Europe" - as well as interaction with for example the American or African continent are also part of the focus, as long as there existed important and/or sustainable contacts to the mentioned regions in East Asia. East Asia is thus treated as an entity made up of different countries and regions with similarities, but also with distinctive differences, concentrating on their interconnectedness and exchange relations, while emphasizing its relations to the macro-regions of Asia, Eurasia and the Orient, but also cross-Pacific interchange.

The focus of contributions are both continental (overland) and maritime (overseas) exchange relations of bilateral and multilateral interaction structures. With regard to contents, major emphasis will be placed on the transfer of science and technologies, cultural aspects in their widest interpretation, religions, commodity and product exchange, trade, as well as migration and the organisation of functioning networks.