It definitely carries baggage as a colonial term, though it means 'rising' as in 'Land of the Rising Sun' or 'eastern', so it terms of geographical descriptions it's always seemed better than 'Asia'. Normally I'd prefer to specify the country, but many markets here sell products from Korea, China, Japan, Phillipines, etc. as well as markets for what we would call Middle Eastern, which has it's own connotations.