Dan (rank) is by far the most recognizable symbol to the general public. The highest dan ranks are sometimes reserved for the founder or leaders of a style and only high-ranking students can be promoted to them. For example, only five living people hold a tenth dan in judo and only about thirty-five worldwide have been promoted to the rank since its inception; of those 10th dan promotions only fifteen were conferred by the Kodokan, all of them to Japanese judoka. This has led to upper level ranks becoming extinct in some arts. In other styles, the dan ranks are not the
Judo in Canada be promoted after five years in the previous grade, but a 'good' candidate would have to wait eight. There have only been seventeen "judan" (tenth dan) judoka in history, fifteen promoted by the Kodokan and two by the International Judo Federation. None of them are Canadian, but Canada does have a group of more than 100 "kōdansha" (high dan holders), all of whom have devoted much of their lives to Canadian Judo. The late Yoshio Senda became Canada's first "kudan" (ninth dan) in 2007, and since then three more Canadians have been promoted to "kudan" by Judo Canada: Yeiji Inouye