The good news: The number of missing people appears to have been massively overstated, at least based on this one estimate. The real number is not clear.

Heartbreaking: While the death toll remains in the low hundreds right now (officially) it seems sure to spiral much higher.

According to the Kyodo News Agency, via BBC, the official missing persons tally is around 88,000.

It's well known that a lot of people are simply stranded in the cities, including Tokyo, and in many cases the people are probaby safe. It's not clear how they're included in the number.

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