Guinness World Records has certified two Japanese sisters as the world’s oldest living identical twins, at the age of 107 years and 330 days, the organisation announced on Monday. The announcement coincided with Respect for the Aged Day, a national holiday in Japan.
Umeno Sumiyama and Koume Kodama were born on November 5, 1913, on Shodoshima Island in western Japan, as the third and fourth of 11 siblings.
According to Guinness World Records Ltd, the sisters smashed the previous record of 107 years and 175 days set by famed Japanese twin sisters Kin Narita and Gin Kanie on September 1.
As per the health and welfare ministry, almost 29% of Japan’s 125 million people are 65 or older, making it the world’s fastest ageing country. About 86,510 of them are centenarians, with half of them celebrating their 100th birthday this year.
After finishing elementary school, Sumiyama and Kodama were separated when Kodama was sent to work as a maid in Oita, on Japan’s southern main island of Kyushu. Sumiyama, on the other hand, stayed on the island where they grew up and raised her own family.
Later, the sisters reflected on their terrible youth. They said they were bullied as children as a result of prejudice against the offspring of multiple births in Japan. For decades, the sisters were too preoccupied with their own lives to meet until they were 70 when they began conducting pilgrimages together to some of Shikoku’s 88 temples and relished the opportunity to reunite.
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The sisters regularly joked about outliving the previous record holders, popularly known as ‘Kin-san, Gin-san,’ who achieved idol-like status in the late 1990s for both their age and humour, their family said.
According to Guinness, the certificates for their new record were mailed to the separate nursing homes where they now live due to anti-covid precautions, and Sumiyama accepted hers with tears of joy.
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