Judan

Judan is a major Japanese professional Go title, traditionally romanized as Judan. It is awarded through an annual title competition conducted within Japan’s professional Go system. Professional players contest the title in a tournament or a match series, depending on the structure used for that competition cycle.

The competition determines and honors the leading player who holds the Judan title for that cycle. Judan is the name of a professional title and its associated competition, not a generic tenth-dan rank in the Go ranking system. The distinction matters because the characters used for the title can literally suggest a tenth-dan rank in other contexts; here, the term specifically refers to the Japanese professional title.