The National Police Agency has confirmed 14,133 deaths,[4][5] 5,304 injured,[4][5] and 13,346 people missing[4][5] across eighteen prefectures.[4][5] Prefectural officials and the Kyodo News Agency, quoting local officials, said that 9,500 people from Minamisanriku in Miyagi Prefecture—about a half of the town's population—were unaccounted for the day after the earthquake,[137] and on the same day NHK reported that the death toll in Iwate Prefecture alone might reach 10,000.[80] On 14 March, Kyodo News Agency reported that some 2,000 bodies were found on two shores in Miyagi Prefecture.[138] As of 12 April 2011, Yomiuri Shimbun reported that 282 people had died from post-earthquake-related factors, such as exposure to cold and wet weather, communicable disease and infection, unsanitary conditions, or inability to receive adequate medical care for pre-existing conditions.[139]
Of the 13,135 fatalaties recovered by 11 April 2011, 12,143 or 92.5% died by drowning. Victims aged 60 or older accounted for 65.2% of the deaths, with 24% of total victims being in their 70s.[140]
Save the Children reports that as many as 100,000 children were uprooted from their homes, some of whom were separated from their families because the earthquake occurred during the school day.[141] As of 10 April 2011, Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare stated that it was aware of at least 82 children who had been orphaned by the disaster.[142]
The Japanese Foreign Ministry has confirmed the deaths of nineteen foreigners.[143] Among them are two English teachers from the United States affiliated with the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program;[144] a Canadian missionary in Shiogama;[145] and citizens of China, North and South Korea, Taiwan, Pakistan and the Philippines.
It was reported that four passenger trains containing an unknown number of passengers disappeared in a coastal area during the tsunami.[146] One of the trains, on the Senseki Line, was found derailed in the morning; all passengers were rescued by a police helicopter.[147] Der Spiegel later reported that five missing trains in Miyagi Prefecture had been found with all passengers safe, although this information could not be confirmed locally.[148]
By 9:30 UTC on 11 March, Google Person Finder, which was previously used in the Haitian, Chilean, and Christchurch, New Zealand earthquakes, was collecting information about survivors and their locations.[149][150] The Next of Kin Registry (NOKR) is assisting the Japanese government in locating next of kin for those missing or deceased.[151]
Japanese funerals are normally elaborate Buddhist ceremonies, which entail cremation. The thousands of bodies, however, exceed the capacity of available crematoriums and morgues, many of them damaged,[152][153] and there are shortages of both kerosene—each cremation requires 50 liters—and dry ice for preservation.[154] The single crematorium in Higashimatsushima, for example, can only handle four bodies a day, although hundreds have been found there and hundreds of people are still missing.[155] Governments and the military have thus been forced to bury many bodies in hastily dug mass graves with rudimentary or no rites, although relatives of the deceased have been promised that cremation will occur later.[156]
The tsunami is reported to have caused several deaths outside of Japan. One man was killed in Jayapura, Papua, Indonesia after being swept out to sea.[157] At the mouth of the Klamath River, south of Crescent City, California, a man who is said to have been attempting to photograph the oncoming tsunami was swept out to sea. His body was found on April 2 along Ocean Beach in Fort Stevens State Park.[158][159][160][161]
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