Same Name Games: The Man Who Got 178 Tanaka Hirokazus in One Place

The latest Japanese edition of the book of Guinness World Records, published in November 2023, included a special article on attempts to set the new world record for people with the same family and given names, featuring Tanaka Hirokazu, which briefly held the title, and the new champion Milica Jovanovic.

It describes how the two groups’ efforts in Japan and Serbia to stage the largest same-name gathering has evolved from competition into an opportunity for international exchange. Among the many Tanaka Hirokazus, the individual leading Japan’s endeavor is greatly pleased with this development.

“My effort, which I pursued earnestly as a bit of fun, entered an unexpected new stage. I’m happy that a connection so frivolous as having the same name has provided worldwide opportunities to share a smile. This is foreign relations conducted by civilians.”

Tanaka Hirokazu, who launched the attempt on the Guinness world record. (© Ikazaki Shinobu)

The Baseball Draft that Sparked the Movement

The “Tanaka Hirokazu Movement” dates back to 2004, when Tanaka worked for a company in Tokyo where he met a designer with exactly the same name, and they decided to form a kind of club. In 1994, Tanaka had been astonished when, at the baseball pro league draft meeting, a player named Tanaka Hirokazu was nominated in first place. Ever since, he has been “collecting” people who share his name.

Initially, he arranged gatherings of people who shared his name written with the exact same kanji characters (田中宏和).

In December 2009, for example, he organized a bus tour. Nine people with the same name took a chartered coach from Shinjuku on a trip to visit two more in Nagano Prefecture. The bus displayed a sign which read “The Tanaka Hirokazu Group” in the front window. The jokes wrote themselves for the entire journey: “If this bus goes off a cliff, the police and rescue crew will be thrown into confusion.” “The media would be just as stupefied.” “They’d report that, ‘Nine Tanaka Hirokazus have gone missing’.”

The following year, they staged a “national assembly” at Odaiba, Tokyo, attended by 37 Tanaka Hirokazus. On their way to the closing party, the Tanaka Hirokazus occupied an entire carriage of the Yurikamome train. Then, at the party, the mother of a minor who attended caused a flurry when she called out her son’s name.

Guinness World Record Attempts

The group achieved its Guinness world record on October 29, 2022. They staged a gathering of 178 Tanaka Hirokazus at a cinema in Shibuya, Tokyo, that set a new record for the “largest same name gathering (first and last names).”

It was a case of third time lucky. On their first try, in October 2011, despite assembling 67 Tanaka Hirokazus at Odaiba, the Guinness World Records head office judged that it was “unable to accept” the attempt.

Although Guinness had established a new category for “Largest same name gathering (first and last names)” in response to the application from Japan, it determined that the largest verifiable gathering took place at a US television studio in September 2005, of 164 women all named Martha Stewart (or Stuart). The stunt was the work of “America’s favorite homemaker”: TV personality and businesswoman, Martha Stewart. Unintentionally, the group set the first world record.

Another attempt by Tanaka Hirokazu in October 2017 still only managed to gather 87 people. Just prior, Tanaka was advised by the Guinness head office that participants need not use kanji to write their names, which might exclude people due to their nationality. The notice came too late to affect the outcome, and the gathering was canceled anyway due to transport chaos wrought by an approaching typhoon, but their number was growing.

Afterward, Tanaka renewed his efforts, launching the “Tanaka Hirokazu Movement” in an attempt to connect with even more of his namesakes.

Advertising Boosts Attendance

In the fall of 2022, the group was ready for its next attempt, 11 years after the first. The date was set for October 29. Two weeks before the scheduled gathering, desperate for success, the group posted an advertisement in the newspaper. It read:

Tanaka Hirokazu: A Gathering of People with the Same Name on October 29
Tanaka Hirokazu: Your namesakes want to meet you! Come to Shibuya, Tokyo
Tanaka Hirokazu: Do you want to be the world number 1? There’s still time!

On the day, 178 Tanaka Hirokazus met at a cinema in Shibuya, and the Guinness head office certified the new record. There was even an attendee who flew from Vietnam, and a three-year-old brought by his mother.

Tanaka holds up the official certificate of the group’s Guinness World Record. (Courtesy of Tanaka Hirokazu)

Tanaka Hirokazus aged from 3 to 80 gather for the third attempt. One Tanaka Hirokazu recently deceased from COVID-19 was represented by a family member. (Courtesy of Tanaka Hirokazu)

Tanaka was overwhelmed at the response. “The efforts of everyone to attend such a frivolous gathering set a new Guinness world record. I’m overjoyed,” he said.

But his glee was short-lived. On February 4, 2023, just 98 days after the triumph, 256 women sharing the name Milica Jovanovic gathered in the Serbian capital Belgrade, rewriting the record.

In fact, this attempt, launched by Serbian media personality Robert Coban, started in response to the Japanese effort.

He was watching the television news with his daughter at home, when they were astonished by a report of gleeful Japanese men named Tanaka Hirokazu who had gathered at a cinema. A story by a French AFP journalist had been published worldwide the same day, reaching over 40 countries, including Serbia.

Coban said to his daughter, “Just 178? That’s nothing.”

A quick online search by the pair revealed Milica Jovanovic to be the most common name in Serbia. Coban’s daughter said she even knew two girls at her school by that name.

In just three months, he managed to assemble 256 women named Milica Jovanovic.

These details were confirmed by Tanaka with Coban himself. Coban said the event was “great entertainment” and praised Tanaka’s “movement.”

It was then that Tanaka made the bold proposal to establish a Japanese-Serbian international federation of people with the same first and last name, to which Coban readily agreed. Thus, the breaking of the Guinness World Record led to the formation of the International Same Name Association, an NGO, to nurture fellowship between same name groups worldwide.

The Tanaka Hirokazu movement began as a bit of fun—what does it hope to achieve by forming an NGO? Tanaka’s answer is solemn: “We aspire for world peace.”

There are many countries where it is common for people to share the same name, such as China and Vietnam. South Korea even has six pro-golfers named Lee Jeong-eun. ISNA hopes that launching same name associations around the world can bring shared laughter across borders, and create a more peaceful world.

The Birth of an Extended Family

In March 2023, the first online meeting was held between 17 Tanaka Hirokazus and 11 Milica Jovanovics.

Tanaka explains that “The ties between the Tanaka Hirokazus has created something like an extended family. Now, I consider this movement as a way to build community through laughter. I want to show the world that people can become friends through such trivial matters.”

Just as he describes, over the years, the ties between participants have grown into relationships that provided mutual aid.

Immediately following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, one Tanaka Hirokazu, a firefighter involved in rescue operations, received encouragement from his namesakes across Japan. Another Tanaka Hirokazu, an essential frontline worker during the COVID-19 pandemic, was buoyed by messages of appreciation from the others. Sadly, he contracted the virus and passed away, but an online memorial was held in his honor.

There have also been happier tales. In 2019, a couple named Tanaka who learned of the movement was inspired to name their newborn son Hirokazu. “We felt it was a community that our son will be able to safely join and rely on.”

Movement founder, Tanaka Hirokazu, holding his namesake, born in 2019. (Courtesy of the Tanaka Hirokazu on the right)

Tanaka now has even bigger hopes, that the group could “establish a fund to provide scholarships and basic income” and sees even more potential for the community in the future. Recently, he has been investigating the prospects of staging a Tanaka Hirokazu exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. “Of course, it would be impossible for everyone to be present throughout such an event, but I’m sure someone could attend.” The idea was suggested to him by a world-renowned gallerist. Certainly, the movement is contemporary art in some form.

Tanaka has also proposed a joint gathering of people with the same first and last name between Ukraine and Russia. “I couldn’t imagine that a Tanaka Hirokazu would ever kill his namesake.”

Tanaka believes that war would never happen in a community connected through laughter. It would be a pity to abandon the MoMA exhibition idea, but perhaps it is not entirely far-fetched for the Tanaka Hirokazu Movement to be named one day as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the crowd or the backwoods, as long as the name Tanaka Hirokazu survives, its inherent nature shall not waver. (© Ikazaki Shinobu)

(Originally published in Japanese. Interview and text by Hamada Nami and Power News. Banner photo © Ikazaki Shinobu.)