My experiences in the U.S. in re: judo shodan are the same as Neil's. The shodan is considered a VERY big deal in U.S. judo. I think in Japan it's seen as more of the "mastering the basics" ceritificate, whereas in the U.S. they really push those kyus. I have one Japanese friend who earned his black belt in high school this way: every day in school he went to club where they beat the hell out of him. Eventually he learned to keep up. Six months in, they switched his white belt for a black belt. That was it.
In the kendo circles I move in the kids don't even think about rank, they just play. Then sometime in their teens they start going for the kyus and earn dan grades over high school and college.
A buddy of mine studies a gendai jujutsu (quite good stuff, too, very randori-oriented). The black belt test is, like, 12 hours long. When I told him I would be testing for san-dan in kendo and that the test was about 3 minutes of jigeiko in front of a panel of judges (plus kata if you pass the shinai part), he said, "Eff you!" (In a nice way, of course.)
I passed, by the way! And I'm only nine years old.
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