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Denmark and Japan boast contrasting profiles both overseas and at home: the former are more generous with aid and have stronger female representation in government; the latter have much lower military spending and income inequality.

These mixed efforts are good enough for upper mid-table places in the rankings, 11th and 14th respectively, so unless you are Danish, Japanese or a blue whale you may not have an instinctive preference for a Group F clash that will dictate who follows the Netherlands into the second round.

As such we will look outside the established rankings for other pointers. And in the case of two wealthy competitors such as these it is interesting to examine attitudes to the rights of disenfranchised citizens domestically.

One such group is the Deaf community, a minority widely stigmatised as disabled. In response to enduring discrimination Deaf advocates campaign for the promotion and protection of Deaf culture (most obviously sign language) as well as assistance in gaining mainstream parity in education, employment and social integration.

Denmark has long been an example of good practice for the rest of the world. There is a world renowned international leadership training for young deaf people, Frontrunners at Castberggard (a High School owned by the Danish Deaf community), which is a great source of empowerment and leadership for the international Deaf community. In Denmark all deaf people are entitled to full sign language interpreting hours in mainstream education as well as for work meetings with hearing colleagues. Deaf people can also get an interpreter for selected social activities for seven hours per week (the Danish Deaf Association continues to campaign for unlimited interpreting services for all social activities).

Unfortunately the situation is deteriorating rapidly with lobbyists eclipsing advocacy groups in policy formation. 99.98% of Danish deaf children under the age of 11 now receive cochlear implants and don’t use any sign language at all. This creates a virtual wall between deaf children and deaf adults, treating deafness as a disability rather than a difference in human experience – i.e. fixing something that doesn’t need to be fixed. Children’s choices are disregarded with invasive, fallible surgery enforced upon them.

The government, the Danish association of parents of deaf children (90 to 95% of deaf children have hearing parents) and Ear, Nose & Throat surgeons form a powerful front for implanting all deaf children. The Danish Deaf Association and Danish Deaf activists oppose these measures but are relatively powerless.

This decline in Danish Deaf rights is increasingly reflected in everyday life. The TV programme for deaf children was closed down some months ago. Deaf couples with deaf children are moving to Sweden because of better educational opportunities, commuting back to Copenhagen for work. A minority culture is being sacrificed for political expediency and ill-considered conformism.

As recently as 30 years ago Japan was no-one’s idea of an exemplar for Deaf rights. Deaf individuals were generally classed as legal minors or mentally deficient, unable to obtain a driver’s licence or write a will. Activists struggled to replicate the success of campaigners in the United States, who had built on deaf culture and the civil rights movement to pursue radical separatism in which deafness was characterised as a quasi-ethnicity. In Japan at this time racial difference was scarcely acknowledged in the public sphere.

Two decades of activism have brought remarkable results and deaf Japanese now enjoy mainstream acceptance. This is widely attributable to the success of the moderate Japanese Federation of the Deaf, who pursued assimilationist policies with mainstream society (e.g. use of lip-reading). At the same time Deaf culture and identity is championed like never before by younger activists who promote the use of Japanese Sign Language. It amounts to a case study in Japan’s changing attitudes to identity, cultural and linguistic difference over the last 30 years.

Thursday’s meeting between Denmark and Japan is a straight fight for second spot in Group F – Takeshi Okada’s side progress with a draw – and a good shot at the latter stages. The competent but hardly exceptional Paraguay likely await in the last 16 with Brazil probable quarter-final opponents.

Whether you are championing the Danes for their historic support for Deaf rights or Japan for their recent advances, a report on the game (and all others) will be made in International Sign on the FIFA website shortly after full-time.

With thanks to Maartje DeMeulder.

Posted in: Denmark, Denmark-Japan, Japan

Views expressed here are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the World Development Movement.