Judo in Canada Canada there are six "kyū" grades for seniors (people 16 years of age or older), eleven "kyū" grades for juniors (people under the age of 16), and ten "dan" grades that are restricted to seniors. Both senior and junior students begin as white belts ("rokkyū") and progress with promotion through yellow, orange, green, and blue, to brown belt ("ikkyū"). Half-grades for juniors were introduced in 2010 and are represented by belts that combine the colours of the previous grade and the next grade (a white and yellow belt, for example, represents a half-grade between "rokkyū" and "gokyū", which the grading
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