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Japanese children too soft to set world record

Japanese children too soft to set world record

An attempt to beat the world record for the number of people in a massage chain ends in failure in Yachiyo, Tokyo. Fingers pointed at stamina-challenged tykes
23 August, 2010
hug chain world record japanFun while it lasted: Failure would strike inside of three minutes.
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Eager Yachiyo residents lined-up on Saturday in a valiant attempt to set a world record for a chain of people massaging each other. In Thailand, 1,223 achieved the feat earlier this year.

Organizers invited 1,920 adults and children -- one percent of the local population -- to Yachiyo Sports and baseball stadium in Chiba prefecture. In order to receive recognition from Guinness World Records, the group faced what would seem to be a pleasant and easy task -- stand in line and massage the shoulders of the person in front of them for three consecutive minutes. 

hug chain world record japan
Unfortunately, according to the Yomiuri Shimbun, particpants failed to ease themselves gently into the record books. Only 465 in an unbroken line managed to continuously massage the person in front of them.

So who let the side down? According to event organiser Hiroyuki Saito, many children's hands got tired.

Instead of a world record, the mass massage turned into just one more reason to bemoan the hands in which the country's future will be held. Or, apparently, not.

Saito nevertheless found a silver lining, suggesting that everyone "will feel the importance of human relationships and connections.” So long as those connections don't last more than three minutes, we should be fine.

There was some bright news for Japanese assaults on world titles. Last week Daisuke Ebihara seemed to set a record on national TV by virtue of his ultra fast finger-snapping, one in a long line of fascinating Japanese attempts at world records.