The sophomores outrank the freshmen, and the juniors outrank the sophomores. Usually the juniors and seniors receive the rank of shodan within 2 or 3 years of training, so at the end of the junior year, a member of a Japanese university karate club should hold a first degree black belt. Some seniors receive the second degree black belt before they graduate. The Japanese university club is composed entirely of college students, so the training can be extremely rigorous with little or no concern for the health risks of the participants. Also, the students have plenty of time to train.
Japanese universities are well known as institutions in which students accomplish next to nothing.
The members of a Japanese university karate club have time to train three hours per day six days per week without interruption. Training is relentless and the sweat pours as if over a waterfall. University clubs in Japan are also very tight knit organizations, and members who wish to quit are strongly discouraged from doing so. Any mention of quitting is a sign of weakness, and the other students will threaten and intimidate anyone who dares to deem the karate club unworthy. The peer pressure to train is ruthless.