The International Judo Federation awarded Kazuhiro Mikami the 10th dan during the inaugural Lausanne Grand Slam, in the city where his Swiss journey began sixty years ago. The distinction was made by IJF President Marius Vizer in the presence of Swiss Judo Federation President Sergei Aschwanden, a former student of Mikami's.
Born in Hakodate on 12 September 1939, Mikami obtained his first dan in 1955. A leading university judoka and instructor at the Kodokan International Division and with the Tokyo police, he arrived in Switzerland in January 1966, sent to promote judo. In 1975 he founded the Mikami Judo School, later the Mikami Judo Club Lausanne, and coached Swiss dan grades through the 1970s while teaching seminars and kata for decades.
The rank distinction matters. The Kodokan awarded Mikami the 9th dan in 2022, together with recognition from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the IJF has now awarded him the 10th dan. The two are separate systems, and the IJF's award does not make him a Kodokan 10th dan.
In 2025, Emperor Naruhito awarded him the Order of the Rising Sun, 5th Class. Beyond the honours, Mikami's work is the story of sixty years of transmitting Japanese and Kodokan judo to a new country, student by student, beginning with young judoka who would carry Swiss judo to the world stage.