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Kobayashi leaves jail after hot dog contest fracas

45 Comments

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“Kobayashi was a great champion and we hope that he is able to resolve his current situation and move past this,” the organization said.

Let's just hope and pray we can all move past this. ;)

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"he was hungry"

I'll bet he was!

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Major League Eating issued a statement calling Kobayashi’s actions “inappropriate and unfortunate.”

Kobayashi's release within 24hrs is also 'inappropriate and unfortunate.

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So they guy has visited the US to compete in this contest for years on end, now lives in the US and still needs a translator? He knew he was not allowed to compete because he didn't sign the contract and still shows up? Spoiled child syndrome. The guy sounds like he needs to get a life.

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Typical spoiled Japanese kid...

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Major League Eating. Nice! Somebody organized a league so they could get a piece of the action.

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Klein, is stuffing yourself with processed meat something to be counted as "making a mark"? I think there are a lot of parents, teachers and care givers on this board that certainly have made more of a mark than some silly 30 year old who stuffs himself with hotdogs and cries when he doesn't get to play.

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Are you telling me this dude lives in the wildest, most culturized city in the world and doesnt speak English... His gf or wife is American ne? I guess it was a Japanese reporter.

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my2sense, "ne" this is English language site, lt`s keep ot that way son.

The bloke is a no good greedy guts. Imagine the uproar if it were an eating contest in Japan and a foreigner acted like that. That Nigelboy, OssanAmerica and Bicultural would have a bleeding field day moaning about how some make us "goodies" look bad and all that.

Stuff that for a laugh. Lock him up and no hot dogs for a year the greedy swine.

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When they showed him saying 'lemme in', the kept on translating it as 'let me eat'. Anyway, I'm puzzled as to why he wasn't kept in prison for about 20 days. That's how it works in Japan.

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@Pukey2: NOT Japan.

Duh.

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Must be a slow news day to write up a story about a guy who crashes a hot dog eating contest. I guess Kobayashi is a mini-celebrity. Since he is a Japanese guy that got in trouble overseas there is going to be some interest on this site. I don't know, I just think a fluff piece about who is currently the most popular girl in Morning Mususme would be a much more interesting read.

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"Kobayashi was charged with obstruction of governmental administration, resisting arrest, trespassing and disorderly conduct."

Throw in a knife charge & it sounds suprisingly similar to a recent trail in Japan, & that person is still in jail!

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should have read:

FORMER UNEMPLOYED Japanese eating champion Takeru Kobayashi, arrested at a July Fourth hot dog-eating event, was freed Monday after a night in jail, looking a little weary and saying he was hungry.

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Eating contests are ridiculous anyway. They shouldn't be allowed and excessive consumption of food hardly needs encouragement in the USA.

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Alf, actually I think that would be hilarious if that happened. Anyway, why is everyone taking this so seriously? He just did it for publicity.

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He will enter a plea to a lesser charge and pay a fine. No jail sentence. However, his future visa status is another story. A good lawyer always helps.

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I'm still trying to figure out what crime he committed. he was barred from competing, he didn't compete, hell he didn't even do anything during the contest. if he was so hell bent on making a scene wouldn't he done it while the contest was going on?

He went to see his friends, sure he shouldn't have gotten onstage, but the contest was over, and it's not as if they didn't know who he was.

As for living in the US, maybe he's learning to speak, but still needs the translator to clear some things.

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I am with you on this one ritalynn. Dude was not acting up. The fans were chanting for him and he jumped on stage. He could have been escorted off and released...but arrested? Not sure what all the hate is for, guess some people just have to get their hate out.

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I agree with ritalynn. It seems to me like the police went overboard on this. There's no signs of him being violent. He just got on stage when he shouldn't have.

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I am a true stickler for the law, but I see no crime committed here. The contest was over, he only jump on the stage to greet his fans and maybe do a dog eating demonstration. If Mike Tyson or Muhammad Ali showed up at a fight, jump on stage and began shadow boxing no one would complain, and if anything it would boost the popularity of the event. For those who think this event is ridiculous, 100+ years ago people thought tossing a ball through a round hoop with a net attached to it was silly too.

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He tried to enter the stage. Security guards attempted to stop him. He resisted and made a scene. Like I said, he will pay a fine for disturbing the peace and or trespassing. End of story.

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But he shouldn't have been stopped in the first place. They knew who he was, he was no threat, why all the drama?

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Japanese eating champion Takeru Kobayashi, arrested at a July Fourth hot dog-eating event, was freed Monday after a night in jail, looking a little weary and saying he was hungry.

Give him a hotdog.

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Yeah, great job by the interpreter on CNN. She interpreted his English words "I'm hungry." to the reporters as "He said he was hungry." She didn't translate the rest of it, which was pretty sarcastic. "You guys ask really good questions," he said in Japanese.

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ritalynn: First off, let me say I like Kobayashi and hope he is successful in America. But since when can someone push their way onto a stage? I really don't that would fly in Japan( or anywhere else for that matter)

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I agree, I don't think he should have gotten on stage, but I don't think they needed to go as far as they did. They could have just escorted him off to the back, he wasn't a treat to anyone, and he just wasn't anybody off the street.

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The slim and boyish 32-year-old

Um...this is journalistic writing right?

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"excessive consumption of food hardly needs encouragement in the USA"

Or in the U.K. Or in Australia. Or in Canada. Or in ...

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my2sense, "ne" this is English language site, lt`s keep ot that way son.

No wonder why you called me son... I just remembered from last year- you're the 88 year old guy. Incredible.

Moderator: Stay on topic please.

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Everyone needs to boycott Major League Eating, otherwise we see more stupid crap like this. It seems lots of people wanted to see Kobayashi do his thing, but MLE thinks it can squeeze more milk out of the cow by being restrictive buttholes. The people need to stand up to that crappy org or be pawns in their profit scheme. Kobayashi has set the tone.

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Because of Kobayashi's previous postings saying he wanted to compete, it's obvious the organizers told security he wasn't to take the stage. When he tried to do so and they blocked him, he caused a scene. His lawyer's only defense appears to be "They were cheering him on and waved him up to the stage." Unfortunately the crowd doesn't determine who gets on stage, the organizers do. Kobayashi already knew this (or should have, at least). By refusing to sign a contract with them, he already knew he could not participate in the event... and getting on the stage counts as participation no matter how you look at it.

From the organizer's perspective, nothing would be gained from letting him on the stage - even after the competition was over. His rift with the organization was public knowledge and for him to take the stage would only inflame Kobayashi's supporters and end the event on a negative note.

I don't agree with the concept of "Major League Eating", but if they're going to pay to sponsor the event, they have the right to say who participates.

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I think security over reacted on this one.

He was likely pressured on stage by the audience or he was unjustly pushed out of the contest, and wanted to make a point.

Either way, a pose or two on stage should have been fine, I even think the organizers could of at least let him or shown a bit of respect to him since he was the one who made that event world famous in the first place.

Kobayashi is a champ

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I don't agree with the concept of "Major League Eating", but if they're going to pay to sponsor the event, they have the right to say who participates.

Technically, so far, this may be correct. But there should be a law to restrict organizers from unfair actions, just as employers are. Its a competition of individuals and who competes should be a question of desire of the individual and their ability to compete, not the desire of the organizers to bar competitors freedom to compete elsewhere. Its not like there is a real conflict of interest here.

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MistWizard, the concept is the same in any sporting event (and I'm using "sporting" very loosely when talking about an eating contest). Take unlimited fighting, for example. If the champion in the UFC is challenged by someone outside the UFC for their title, the UFC has the final say on whether the fight happens or not. 9 times out of 10 the UFC is going to bar the challenge from outside their stable, because they don't want to risk the holder of their belt belonging to some other fighting organization.

There was nothing unfair about the organizer's actions. It's their event so they get to say who competes. Kobayashi was told he couldn't compete if he didn't join their stable of competitors, yet he showed up anyways. Why? Nothing good could have come from him making an appearance at an event he was barred from participating in.

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After witnessing the drama involving Kobayashi, Chestnut said, “I feel bad for him.”

Yeah, right. Just 10 minutes before that Chestnut said in his "hero interview" that if Kobayashi was a real man he would be up on the stage, basically calling out Kobayashi. When Kobayashi decided to show Chestnut up (with the support of the crowd), the police stopped it. Would Kobayashi have put Chestnut and MLE in their place by eating way more than 54 hot dogs? Very likely, IMO.

Shame on Chestnut. Shame on MLE.

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Chestnut was gulping down Pepto Bismol during his interview. Another requirement of MLE? Chestnut is a puppet of MLE. Without Kobayashi, he has no competition and this sport will die if he doesn't put any effort into trying to set new records.

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I've said for the longest time that MLE want Chestnut to be the centerpiece of their organization, but outside of competitive eating, no one knows who he is. The guy's not interesting, He's not entertaining, and he has an attitude.

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Chestnut is not the true champion. It would not suprise me if Kobayashi the spectator could down 55 dogs while cheering/jeering his competitors.

Chestnut needs to give up the mustard belt to the true champion. -How much will this PPV (pay-per-view) cost?

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How can so many people watch this ridiculous "sport"? Give the food to the homeless shelters. There's plenty of those in New York these days.

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Fadamor said: the UFC has the final say on whether the fight happens or not.

That does not make the situation right. It might be technically legal. It might be standard proceedure. But that does not make it right.

Anyway, MLE tried to restrict Kobayashi's freedom to participate in OTHER events, so your analogy of a nobody coming along to challenge does not address what I was I talking about.

There was nothing unfair about the organizer's actions. It's their event so they get to say who competes.

I am afraid simple ownership does not make a thing fair. If it were, an employer could be just as racist as it wants to be, or bigoted. Fair is fair. Ownership is ownership. They are separate.

In the case of Kobayashi, I can't say for sure, but it seems like these competition are his livlihood, and this one his chief event. Take this one or the others away and you hit his life hard. And for what? That is not fair.

And how did MLE acquire the rights anyway? They did not invent the competition, did they?

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lets imagine for a second that he was an NJ resident and had done this in Japan. if so, he would have been subjected to the japanese judicial process, locked up for 3 odd weeks and subsequently deported.

regardless of this admittedly ridiculous hypothetical comparison, it's an interesting dichotomy, don't you think?

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I do get where some people feel that he shouldn't have gotten onstage, and I agree with that, but:

He wasn't a real threat.

He wasn't just anybody off the street. If some random person jumped onstage, then yes, you take him down, you have no idea who that person is or what he's trying to do. But they knew this guy, they worked with him for years, there was no need for all the drama. All they did was draw more attention to him instead of the contest.

He didn't interrupt the contest, it went on with out any hassles. If he really wanted to cause a scene he could have jumped the stage before or during the contest, or made a scene in the crowd during the contest.

He was banned from the contest, he didn't participate in the contest, he didn't break any rules.

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 I agree with melonade: if a foreigner tried that here he'd be cooling his heels bigtime after being interrogated for 12 hours by the keystones and then made to sign a forced confession and then sentenced to 3 months for "disturbing the peace". Kobayashi should consider himself blessed.

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This article is in the Crime section. Funny.

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