On the other hand, in Japan, according to Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, the official number of people affected by hearing loss is much less-346,000. However, this number indicates only how many authorized hearing loss cards have been issued by the government. According to the majority of the Deaf community, the real population is more than six million which is at least 5% of the total population of 127,636,000 (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, 2004).
The percentage of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing is consistent at 5-7% across the world.
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