Right after Typhoon Haiyan passed over Leyte and Samar islands in the Philippines last month, destroying almost everything in its path, international news services were reporting a death toll of 10,000. NHK's bulletins mentioned several dozen dead, and social media carped that Japan's public broadcaster was behind the curve on the story. But what these critics interpreted as insufficient attention was just caution, and when it became clear that the number killed wasn't nearly as high as first estimated by local police, NHK's usual prudence, and that of the Japanese media in general, stood apart as being more responsible.

On the surface, this caution was a natural reaction to a lack of verifiable evidence. The supposed 10,000 deaths were unconfirmed, and while they were described as such in the international press, the public tends to take such numbers at face value.

Below the surface was sympathy for victims and survivors. To this day, the death toll from the Great East Japan Earthquake is qualified by the thousands who remain unaccounted for. Most of the world has moved on under the assumption that these people are dead, but until they are absolutely certain, the Japanese media will continue to treat them as existing in a kind of semantic limbo. Reporters have no right to say someone is dead when there's no proof that they aren't alive.