Master Black Belt

Judo master makes 10th degree black belt

After 98 years, the phone call finally came.

Last week, Sensei Keiko Fukuda of San Francisco became the first woman to be promoted to judo's highest level: 10th degree black belt.

Only three people in the world, all men living in Japan, have ever reached that mark.

The martial arts promotion by USA Judo brought 98-year-old Fukuda to tears at the women's dojo where she still teaches in Noe Valley. (Fukuda was the subject of a Chronicle Datebook profile on July 25.)

She gave up marriage and left her homeland to dedicate her life to judo, fighting gender discrimination that kept her at lower belt levels decades longer than men less skilled than she.

"The time was right," said U.S. Judo Federation promotion board member Eiko Saito Shepherd.

A celebration is being planned for mid-October to coincide with Fukuda's annual International Kata Championship at San Francisco City College.

"All my life," Fukuda said, "this has been my dream."

E-mail Meredith May at mmay@sfchronicle.com .

All About Training» Blog Archive » Six Sigma Black Belt Training

By: Craig B Calvin

Developing organizational leaders is what Six sigma’s black belt training does. Every core process they are involved with, will go smoothly with the hands on training. These “hands on” change agents are very skilled in the methods, tools and procedures of Six Sigma. They are extremely familiar with DMAIC, or (design, measure, analyze, improve and control) and is fantastic when used for the project process.

Six sigma black belt training typically varies in duration during which the candidate demonstrates his or her understanding of the subject matter, in the classroom, on a project and by way of a written final examination. Black belts mentor and coach the green belts while at the same time receive coaching from master black belts. Black belts usually become master black belts after much experience in the field and further training, depending on the type and size of the organization.

Six sigma training ultimately reveal inherent characteristics that every good black belt possesses. These customer advocacy characteristics include acceptance that the customers is the final judge; always have a passion about your work during the process that is infectious to others; this passion will involve initiative and always have a positive position on everything project related; be a very successful agent of change and encourage and cheer co-workers to achieve their best through the changes; know that highly effective communication skills are necessary for training, coaching and mentoring and getting the message to the audience in a very down to earth way and that success the six sigma way comes one successful completed project at a time; is comfortable being either a team leader or player; never follows, but is always part of every new business curve; has exceptional technical aptitude to urgently analyze data; always striving to get acceptable results while always making every project a rewarding experience for all team members and leaders involved in every aspect of the daily process.

Trust and integrity are never ending with it comes to development and improvements of these characteristics in the six sigma black belt training. The on going quest for deeper process knowledge to better function in a diversified working environment. Advanced degree-ed individuals have advanced thinking skills, Six sigma and ISO knowledge as well as skill sets and procedures for other quality controls are the most desirable.

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The Six Sigma way team fieldbook, an implementation guide for project improvement teams