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