TOKYO – A total of 150 people named “Hirokazu Tanaka” gathered Saturday in Tokyo’s bustling Shibuya district in an attempt to set a world record for the largest gathering of people sharing the same full name, but fell short.
The Guinness World Records for the title was set in 2023, when 256 people named “Milica Jovanovic” gathered in one place in Serbia. The Tanakas had previously held the record in 2022 with 178.
Participants must remain in one place for five minutes. Names written with different kanji characters are counted as the same, provided they are pronounced identically, with verification through identification, such as passports or health insurance cards.
When a Guinness official announced that the attempt had failed, a collective sigh rose from the crowd.
The proposer, Hirokazu Tanaka, 56, began searching for people who share his name after being inspired in 1994, when a baseball player of the same name was selected as the now-defunct Kintetsu Buffaloes’ first draft pick.
AloJapan.com