Twins are known for doing things together, but one pair in Japan have taken their closeness a step further by giving birth on the same day.
Japanese sisters Nanami Hamada and Minae Hatamoto, 25, had their babies within a few hours of each other, despite their due dates being two weeks apart.
The older sister Hamada, whose due date was January 18, did not start having labour pains until January 20. About an hour later, her younger sister Hatamoto, whose due date was February 4, began her labour.
The twins were rushed to the same hospital and each gave birth to healthy babies, a girl for Hamada and a boy for Hatamoto.
The siblings from Kyoto were shocked by the coincidence, and wondered if it was because they lived together every day – staying with their parents throughout their pregnancies – they told media outlet Kyoto Shimbun in June.
The twins had always been close and said they continued to live their lives “in sync” when they became adults.
They went to the same secondary school and played as partners in the school’s soft tennis team.
After graduation, the sisters, who are nearly 170cm tall, went to Osaka together to work as models.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, they moved back to Kyoto, lived close by and worked at the same restaurant.
Hatamoto married in 2022, and Hamada in 2023. Their husbands were same-year students who played for the same baseball school team.
Not all their synchronisations could be planned. They said they used to have fevers at the same time when they were young, and while playing tennis once, they sprained their ankles together.
They said they look forward to raising their children together as though they are twins.
Many online observers expressed shock at their story, while some shared similar twin experiences.
“There seems to be a mysteriously close bond between the twins, it is as if they are two copies of one body,” one online observer said.
“My female friend has a twin brother. Once when I hung out with her at home, she suddenly said her shoulder was in pain. Her brother got home that evening saying he had injured his shoulder falling off his bike,” another said.
There have been many reports about twin attachments worldwide.
In 2022, a set of twin sisters in China met each other for the first time in 30 years.
The pair were separated as babies and did not know about each other for a long time.
When they met, they were shocked to learn they had each named their son Kevin.
