People in the west also don’t seem to understand that Japanese news media is closer to that in China than here. Abe is notorious for silencing his critics, having them fired or moved if they question the government line. Press freedom has entirely collapsed from where it was in Japan not even a decade ago.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/13/japan-accused-...

This is all to say, even if you had this spike in deaths, I’m skeptical it would be reported until it was too late.