American Beat: Japanese Sputnik

I admit, it was probably my own patriotic hubris that blinded me to this for so many years, years when the Japanese-beginning with two-time champ Hirofumi Nakajima, then Arai, and now two-time winner Kobayashi-have consistently carried the Mustard Yellow International Belt back to the land of the rising bun.

In my desire to see an American reclaim the title, I just assumed that America was putting up its best competitors to tackle the Japanese invasion. I figured that America was responding to this threat like it responded in 1957, when the Soviets terrified us into action by putting a La-Z-Boy-sized piece of junk into orbit.

But this time, we're not seeing a Sputnik moment. We're not responding at all.

See, in Japan, eating contests are not just the stuff of state fairs, kitsch or public-relations schemes; they're serious, serious business. In Japan, in fact, some of these eaters turn pro, earning thousands of dollars competing in events that make the Fox network's "Glutton Bowl," which aired in February and was, of course, won by Kobayashi, look so outdated that it might just have well have been filmed in black and white.

"In Japan, this a professional sport, where top eaters get prize money and appearance fees," says George Shea, president of the International Federation of Competitive Eating, the sport's governing body. "At Nathan's, which is America's flagship event, you get a year's supply of hot dogs and possession of the Mustard Yellow belt. And you have to give the belt back."

When I asked Kobayashi about this, he confirmed that his nation makes celebrities out of the big eaters. In fact, he said, he had recently been beaten in an eating contest in Japan where the winner ate 21 pounds of noodles and soup in 15 minutes.