Guinness World Records has certified two Japanese sisters as the world’s oldest living identical twins. It is at the age of 107 years and 330 days, the organization announced on Monday.
The announcement was made on Japan’s Respect for the Aged Day, a national holiday.
Umeno Sumiyama and Koume Kodama were born on November 5, 1913, on Shodoshima Island in western Japan. They are the third and fourth of 11 siblings.
According to Guinness World Records, the sisters smashed the previous record of 107 years and 175 days. Famed Japanese twin sisters Kin Narita and Gin Kanie set it on Sept. 1.
According to the health and welfare ministry, almost 29% of Japan’s 125 million people are 65 or older. Thereby, making it the world’s fastest aging country. About 86,510 of them are centenarians, with half of them celebrating their 100th birthday this year.
World’s oldest twins: Kin-san, Gin-san
After finishing elementary school, Sumiyama and Kodama were separated. Kodama was sent to work as a maid in Oita, in 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 victims of bully as children as a result of prejudice against children 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.
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 humor, according to their family.
According to Guinness, it mailed the certificates for their new record to separate nursing homes. They now live due to anti-coronavirus precautions. Sumiyama accepted hers with tears of joy.
