The reinvestigation of floristic components together with recent radiometric dating of the fossil-bearing deposits reveals that the "Miocene" floras including lobed oaks in East Asia (Japan, North Korea and Primorye) are Oligocene in age. These Oligocene floras consist mainly of temperate deciduous broad-leaved trees and conifers; they are characterized by commonly containing lobed and serrate/dentate oak leaves. Four fossil species of lobed oaks are confirmed from the Oligocene of East Asia : Quercus kobatakei Tanai and Yokoyama, Q. kodairae Huzioka, Q. sichotensis Ablaev and Gorovoi and Q. ussuriensis Kryshtofovich, all of which belong to the subgenus Quercus. Quercus ussuriensis belongs to the section Cerris, and is more closely similar to extant European or West Asian species than to those of East Asia. The remaining three species belong to the sections Prinus or Quercus, and they are similar to some extant species of North American Prinus or European/West Asian Quercus. A brief survey of the fossil lobed oak record in the Northern Hemisphere suggests that the phylad of Cerris originated in East Asia and eastern Kazakhstan during the Oligocene, and that it dispersed to West Asia and Europe, but never to the New World. Tertiary phytogeographic history of the sections Prinus and Quercus is conjectural, because these two sections are now difficult to distinguish only by leaf characters.