Judo federations have promoted another eleven who are not recognized (at that level of rank) by the Kodokan. On July 28, 2011, the promotion board of USA Judo awarded Keiko Fukuda the rank of 10th "dan", who was the first woman to be promoted to judo's highest level, albeit not a Kodokan-recognized rank. Although "dan" ranks tend to be consistent between national organizations there is more variation in the "kyū" grades, with some countries having more "kyū" grades. Although initially "kyū" grade belt colours were uniformly white, today a variety of colours are used. The first black belts to denote a
Judo in Canada (2011), Raymond Damblant (2012), and Hiroshi Nakamura (2012). Eleven Canadians are ranked "hachidan" (eighth dan), twenty-seven are ranked "shichidan" (seventh dan), and approximately 85 others are ranked "rokudan" (sixth dan). The names of the ninth and eighth "dan" holders are listed in the tables to the right. A typographic dagger () follows the names of those who are deceased. A registry of approximately 5000 black belts ranked "shodan" (first "dan") to "hachidan" (eighth "dan") in the years 1946–1997 is included in Glynn Leyshon's book "Judoka: a history of Judo in Canada". Canadians have won five Olympic medals in Judo since