Deceased 7-yr old referred to as さん on the news, then as ちゃん later on


I've been following the unfortunate 新潟 railway child murder case on the news
recently. I noticed that in the beginning, the news referred to the victim as
[さん](http://www.fnn-news.com/news/headlines/articles/CONN00391543.html
"線路内の女児遺体は大桃珠生さん\(7\)　窒息死か"), but later switched their usage to
[ちゃん](http://www.fnn-news.com/news/headlines/articles/CONN00391654.html
"ちゃん")―which is the title I would usually expect to see attached to a child.
This is unlikely an occasional mistake in that さん occurred several times on
different articles related to this case.

When I first saw them use さん on the news, I found it rather odd. However, I
figured they probably wanted to show respect to the poor victim. If that was
the case, the fact that they switched back to ちゃん struck me as somewhat
strange, yet fascinating culture-wise nonetheless.

**Question:**  
Is this phenomenon a common practice in Japan, or merely a matter of personal
style? (Since it occurred on Japanese news, I doubt the latter would be the
case though.)




Each media company has its own style guideline. The following report is
exactly on this topic.

[「ちゃん / 君 /さん」動物が「死亡する / 亡くなる」について～「日本語のゆれに関する調査」の報告～.
放送研究と調査](https://www.nhk.or.jp/bunken/research/kotoba/pdf/20171101_1.pdf)
(PDF)

[![table](https://i.stack.imgur.com/wzF8Z.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/wzF8Z.png)

This table is about young male victims, but I think ちゃん tends to be more
tolerated when a victim is a girl.

(By the way, 毎日 recently decided to stop using 君 for boys altogether, which
strikes me as a pretty "liberal" decision...)

* * *

NHK's rule (as of 2005) is:

> 敬称の扱い  
>  （1）敬称は原則として「さん」あるいは「氏」。複数の場合は「～の各氏」など。
> （2）学生や未成年者（男）には「君」を付けてもよい。また，学齢前の幼児には「ちゃん」を付ける。  
>  次のような場合は，小学生についても「ちゃん」を適宜使ってもよい。 **①本人が痛ましい事件に巻き込まれた場合（誘拐，交通事故など）**
> 。②愛らしさを特に強調したい場合。

共同通信社's rule, cited in [this page](https://oshiete.goo.ne.jp/qa/983087.html),
also says 小学生でも事件の被害者や特別なケースでは適宜「ちゃん」を使用してよい.

So it's the opposite of what you think. A seven-year-old elementary school
girl is usually referred to with さん, but when the children is a poor victim,
ちゃん can be intentionally chosen to show sympathy. But the research says such
usage of ちゃん may be becoming less popular.

Related: [use of 〜ちゃん as a generic
term](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/34197/5010)




Each media company has its own style guideline. The following report is
exactly on this topic.

[「ちゃん / 君 /さん」動物が「死亡する / 亡くなる」について～「日本語のゆれに関する調査」の報告～.
放送研究と調査](https://www.nhk.or.jp/bunken/research/kotoba/pdf/20171101_1.pdf)
(PDF)

[![table](https://i.stack.imgur.com/wzF8Z.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/wzF8Z.png)

This table is about young male victims, but I think ちゃん tends to be more
tolerated when a victim is a girl.

(By the way, 毎日 recently decided to stop using 君 for boys altogether, which
strikes me as a pretty "liberal" decision...)

* * *

NHK's rule (as of 2005) is:

> 敬称の扱い  
>  （1）敬称は原則として「さん」あるいは「氏」。複数の場合は「～の各氏」など。
> （2）学生や未成年者（男）には「君」を付けてもよい。また，学齢前の幼児には「ちゃん」を付ける。  
>  次のような場合は，小学生についても「ちゃん」を適宜使ってもよい。 **①本人が痛ましい事件に巻き込まれた場合（誘拐，交通事故など）**
> 。②愛らしさを特に強調したい場合。

共同通信社's rule, cited in [this page](https://oshiete.goo.ne.jp/qa/983087.html),
also says 小学生でも事件の被害者や特別なケースでは適宜「ちゃん」を使用してよい.

So it's the opposite of what you think. A seven-year-old elementary school
girl is usually referred to with さん, but when the children is a poor victim,
ちゃん can be intentionally chosen to show sympathy. But the research says such
usage of ちゃん may be becoming less popular.

Related: [use of 〜ちゃん as a generic
term](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/34197/5010)

