A 59-year-old man from Chiba Prefecture recited pi, or the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, from memory to 83,431 decimal places from Friday to Saturday to set an unofficial new world record.

CHIBA (Kyodo) A 59-year-old man from Chiba Prefecture recited pi, or the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, from memory to 83,431 decimal places from Friday to Saturday to set an unofficial new world record. News photo Akira Haraguchi recites pi from memory on his way to establishing an unofficial world record Saturday morning. Akira Haraguchi, a former corporate employee from Mobara who already holds a world record in pi recitation, started the new challenge shortly after noon Friday and stopped at 83,431 decimal places early Saturday. He equaled his previous best of 54,000 decimal places, a feat he achieved in September, at around 8 p.m. That performance is still under review and has not been verified yet. Haraguchi, who is now a volunteer worker, said he was forced to stop at 54,000 decimal places in that attempt because of a time constraint in the facility where the recitation took place. The current Guinness world record for reciting pi from memory is held by another Japanese who recited it to 42,195 decimal places while a college student. Haraguchi said he hopes his latest achievement makes it into the next edition of the Guinness Book of World Records.