A 178-strong group of people all named Hirokazu Tanaka broke the Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of people with the same first and last name in Tokyo on Saturday.

The Tanaka Hirokazu association organized the successful attempt in Shibuya Ward, which saw them outdo the 2005 record set by 164 people called Martha Stewart, who were brought together by the famous American businesswoman of the same name.

A representative of the association, Hirokazu Tanaka, 53, said it was the group's third try after two failed attempts in 2011 and 2017, when 71 and 87 Hirokazu Tanakas turned up, respectively.

Previous challenges were thwarted by the association's adherence to a stricter criteria in which all Hirokazu Tanakas had to share the same Chinese characters to read their names. But because the guidelines for the record recognize anyone so long as the reading of their names is the same, the group cast its net wider this time.

The 53-year-old Tanaka founded the organization for people with the same name as him in 1994. His inspiration came from seeing a Hirokazu Tanaka become the first player to be drafted by the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes (now the Orix Buffaloes) at Nippon Professional Baseball's annual entry draft.

Originally planned for 2020 to coincide with the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, the world record attempt was, like the Games, postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.