Tokyo: Guinness World Records announced on Tuesday that Japan’s Umeno Sumiyama and Koume Kodama, are now the world’s oldest identical twins (living and ever/female) at 107 years, and 300 days, as of September 1.
Umeno and Koume were born on November 5,1913 as the eldest and second daughters in a family that lived on Shodo Island, Kagawa Prefecture. Of the 11 siblings, Umeno was the third and Koume was the fourth child. The twins' family said they described their childhood as being like a Japanese TV drama called “Oshin” that featured a girl in the Meiji period. The hardest thing at that time, they said, was being bullied because they were twins.
After getting married, Umeno had four children and Koume had three. Umeno now lives in Shodo Island, Kagawa while Koume lives in Oita. Described as social and positive, the twins began traveling together for some Buddhist pilgrimages every year from when they turned 70 despite being unable to catch up with each other often.
They both now live in separate rest homes, Umeno from this April and Koume since age of 106. This record was verified by the family applying to Guinness World Records. The twins were well aware of previous record holders, Kin Narita and Gin Kanie, and had joked about reaching their age, although not expecting to really break it. When Umeno received the certificate, she was in tears of joy. Koume, on the other hand, may not have fully comprehended what the official certificate was about, but her family is pleased that Koume's achievement was recognized, given that Koume often talked about Guinness World Records in the past.
Amid the situation of COVID-19, the certificate was sent to their rest homes and handed to them by caretakers.
Previous record holders of oldest identical twins ever (female) and oldest identical living twins(female) were Kin Narita and Gin Kanie (Japan) at age of 107 years old and 175 days.
The title for the oldest person living currently belongs to Kane Tanaka, who is now at the age of 118. The oldest person ever (male) is Jiroemon Kimura (Japan), who was born on 19 April 1897 and passed away aged 116 years 54 days on 12 June 2013.
The oldest person ever to have lived was Jeanne Louise Calment (France) who lived to 122 years and 164 days.
