Contemporary regime of the East Asia monsoon around the Japan/East Sea is studied, using data from the 0.5°-gridded 6-hour global QSCAT/NCEP Blended Ocean Winds data set spanning the period from July 1999 through July 2009. Wind stress vectors are decomposed to empirical orthogonal functions (EOF) in the complex form, based on spatial correlations. Both original and low-pass filtered, with the 7-day cut-off period, stresses yield the same leading EOF modes, beyond the synoptic time scale. EOF 1 accounts for the general monsoon conditions, with characteristic wind directions, seasonal shifts, and stress and curl spatial patterns. Contributions from the higher modes are not significant. Typical wind stress patterns are derived using statistics of wind directions, beyond the synoptic time scale. They are verified by the independent scalar EOF analysis of wind stress curl based on the same QSCAT/NCEP data set. Winter pattern is the leading curl mode, with fine features resolved, related to coastal orographic gaps. The second and third modes together represent summer monsoon and monsoon change periods. These curl patterns are consistent with those computed from typical (average) wind stresses.