I am sure that many people in this forum have at least sho-dan. It seems that there tends to two trains of thought on Sho-dan. I will use my experience as an example. I took the sho-dan test in Japan after practicing for around four months. I know that is very soon, but I had played Kendo as a child and took a few test at age 9... At any rate, I passed and at that time I was very happy that I was making progress.

Well when I got back to the states I over heard several people complaining that "over in Japan anyone can get sho-dan, but here you have to work for it." Well I felt like all my hard work in Japan was just denigrated. BTW I did not tell them where I got my shodan. Never the less I ask my sensei about this and he said that in Japan most adults are given Sho-dan regardless of their skill level. While in the states it takes at least 3 year to reach sho-dan, because so many people start kendo as an adult. I was wondering if this is typical of most countries outside of Japan?

I would like to hear about others who have similar or very different experiences.