A group 178 men all sharing the name Tanaka Hirokazu convened Tokyo on Saturday to break the Guinness World Record the largest gathering of people with the same first and last name. The successful record attempt was organized the Tanaka Hirokazu association. This group was established a guy called Tanaka Hirokazu (surprise, surprise) 1994. Mr Tanaka's inspiration came seeing a namesake of his drafted a professional Japanese baseball team. Ex-baseball player Tanaka Hirokazu was also part Saturday's record meeting. The 178 new record holders span the generations, the youngest being three years old, and the eldest being an octogenarian.
Association leader Tanaka Hirokazu, 53, was elated breaking the world record. His association had tried twice before, 2011 and 2017, to break the record. These attempts were thwarted largely because the association's insistence all participants having to have the same Chinese characters (kanji) their name. Saturday's meeting had a more lenient criterion. The association deemed that anyone the name Hirokazu Tanaka was eligible, regardless the kanji used to spell their name. Mr Tanaka reflected his world-beating achievement. He told reporters: "I never expected we would achieve such a ridiculous record." He added that the 178 Tanakas had "set an example silliness".
