Akira Haraguchi

Akira Haraguchi, a former corporate employee from Mobara who already holds a world record in pi recitation, started the new challenge shortly after noon July 1 and stopped at the 83,431st digit early July 2.

He equaled his previous best of 54,000 digits, 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 digits in that attempt because of a time constraint in the facility where the recitation took place. This time, Haraguchi used a hall with no time limit.

The current Guinness world record for reciting pi from memory is held by another Japanese who recited it to the 42,195th digit while a college student.

Haraguchi said he hopes his latest achievement makes it into the next edition of the Guinness Book of World Records.

The Japan Times Weekly: July 9, 2005
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