Hirokazu Tanaka. Hirokazu Tanaka. Hirokazu Tanaka. and so forth 178 times. A room full of names broke the world record for “largest gathering of people with the same first and last name” this weekend in Japan.

There was a 3-year-old and an 80-year-old. Hirokazu Tanaka even flew from the Vietnamese capital Hanoi to be counted.

“It just feels weird because of my name in it Guinness book record to come. “I thought you should be able to do something special for it. I can’t help but thank my dad,” said one of the current firefighters, Hirokazu Tanakas, from Osaka.

The successful scoring attempt was the wish of 53-year-old Hirokazu Tanaka, who was his inspiration when he found out he was sharing his name with a basketball star. He told AFP he was “overwhelmed with happiness” when he found the name he thought was normal for someone else.

When Hirokazu Tanaka learned that there was already a record of most names grouped together, he wanted to do the same. The old record has been 164 since 2005, when American presenter Martha Stewart invited another Martha Stewart to join her show.

Tanaka’s initiatives failed several times. Once “only” 87 Hirokazu Tanakas appeared, the attempt to rally more people around the Olympics in Japan was canceled due to Corona.

This time there were enough Hirokazu Tanakas, the official counters to the Book of Specific Records. Wearing T-shirts bearing their names, they gathered in a hall in Tokyo.

To distinguish themselves (the song “Nice, I’m Hirokazu Tanaka” 178 times turned out to be clumsy), and their clothes were all given nicknames based on their hobby, work, or favorite food. Thus the initiator Hirokazu Tanaka became the “Leader Somewhat”, and some called it sunglasses, gum, or triathlon.

Hirokazu Tanaka from Kawagoe is back home with a new joy in his name. “It’s crazy knowing that there are so many people with the same name. I had previously thought that something like this would apply to famous names like Suzuki or Sato. We owe it to the initiator that we succeeded.”

Something similar was done in the Netherlands in 2007, albeit on a less intense scale. 3FM DJ Sander de Heer and NOS news reader Peter de Vries next organized National Peter de Friedag. Attended 62 with the same name. And among them was not the most famous bearer of the name, crime reporter Peter R. de Vries.