I have always thought hour requirements were strange. Where I train one of the 'sensei's' just got his ikkyu after about 15 years and one of the other sensei's is working on his shodan and it has been nearly 20 years. I have been training for 3 1/2 years with about 4 hours formal training a week and about an hour a day of practice and I am a yonkyu.
Just to give some perspective.
How I wish I could test for shodan after 300 days with the Aikikai syllabus