On September 1, Umeno Sumiyama and Koume Kodama turned 107 years and 300 days old, and the Guinness Book of Records declared them the oldest twins in the world.
The sisters were born on November 5, 1913 on Sedo Island in western Japan. In addition to them, the family had nine more children. According to relatives, the sisters are very similar in character - both are positive and easy-going. However, their growing up was not easy: in those days, the twins were often bullied in schools.
As the sisters say, their life is like a soap opera: after elementary school, they were separated for almost their entire lives. One went to the island of Kyushu to work as a maid, and got married there. The second, having matured, found herself a husband on Sedo.
The twins have survived two world wars. They spent almost their entire lives 300 kilometers from each other and saw each other mainly at weddings and funerals. However, when they were about 70 years old, they reunited and made Buddhist pilgrimages together several times.
Now the sisters live in different nursing homes. Due to the pandemic, representatives of the Guinness Book of Records were forced to send them their certificates by courier. One of the sisters burst into tears of joy upon seeing the certificate. The memory of the second, unfortunately, is not the same, so she did not manage to realize her record.
Japan has the fastest aging population in the world: 28% of the 125 million people are over 65. There are also 86,500 centenarians over 100 years old. 88% of them are women.