Takeru Kobayashi’s Hot Dog Eating Competition with Joey Chestnut

This July 4th, for the first time in 23 years, neither of the world’s greatest hot dog eaters, Takeru Kobayashi and Joey Chestnut, will be participating in the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest.

In 2010, Major League Eating banned Kobayashi from the event over a contractual dispute. They wanted him to be exclusive to MLE, which sanctioned the Nathan’s event, held annually on Coney Island. Last month, the same thing happened to his old rival, Chestnut, who was banned from Nathan’s by MLE after he signed an endorsement deal with Impossible Foods, which makes plant-based hot dogs.

Instead, the two men will face off in a special live on Netflix on Labor Day to determine who is the world’s greatest eater. Their rivalry dates back to 2007, when Chestnut dethroned Kobayashi, who had won the Nathan’s Championship six years in a row and set multiple world records. Chestnut went on to win 15 of the next 16 contests and holds the current world record — 76 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes. Kobayashi, now 46, wants to reclaim that mark.

ESPN spoke with Kobayashi through his translator Noriko Okubo on the July 3 episode of the ESPN Daily podcast. In his first interview since the contest was announced on Sept. 2, he discussed his rivalry with Chestnut, what happened with eating in the major leagues and why he never retired from competitive eating.

ESPN: You grew up in a country where hot dogs weren’t sold very often. What was your experience like when you first tasted hot dogs?

Kobayashi: The first time I entered the Nathan’s competition, I had a hot dog two days before the actual competition, so it must have been July 2nd. I landed in New York, and it was the first thing I ate, so I remember it clearly. It tasted very strong and salty.

ESPN: What else do you remember from that first year?

Kobayashi: I was surprised by the strong smell of the beef hot dog. Once you enter the competition, you don’t focus on the taste. You’re just excited to eat quickly. But before the competition, when the smell bothers you, it can affect your overall performance, so I was a little worried. The biggest difference was the audience between Japan and America. The American audience cheers you on a lot. It’s very loud. The Japanese audience tends to be more focused and concentrated and sit quietly and watch you.

ESPN: We’ve all seen the news that you’ll be facing former rival, Joey Chestnut, for the first time since 2009. What’s it been like for you since the news of this Labor Day showdown broke?

Kobayashi: I’ve gotten a lot of responses on social media. My friends, people in the neighborhood walking down the street are really thinking about it, like, ‘I really hope you make it.’ We’re looking forward to competing, and I really feel like a lot of fans are sharing this new journey and challenge with me.

ESPN: When I came to the United States, I was young and I changed the game. I saw competitive eating as a sport, and competitive eating as a sport. Your technique was different. How would you describe it?

Kobayashi: For me, it’s more about the rhythm of eating and trying to focus on doing as little extra stuff as possible. Eating efficiently.

ESPN: What did you think of Joey’s technique the first time you competed against him?

Kobayashi: His style is more of a force. I think he’s very strong.

ESPN: You’ve been winning for six years, what are your fondest memories from that period?

Kobayashi: Obviously my biggest memory is that first year I won, and the second one is in 2004, when one of my rivals, someone I competed with regularly in Japan, came to Nathan’s. And I beat him.

ESPN: We can’t talk about your impact on the sport without talking about the Solomon Method you developed. What is the Solomon Method?

Kobayashi: While everyone else was focused on eating a lot of food, I was more focused on that hot dog and how I could eat it as quickly as possible. Because once you focus on that, all you have to do is repeat it and you end up eating as many hot dogs as possible. It was like doing research in a lab. I tried all sorts of things. That’s when I discovered that breaking the hot dog in half, separating the bun from the hot dog and dunking it in water was the fastest way for me.

ESPN: What was it about your personality and the way you looked at sports that allowed you to go beyond what anyone had done before, and prove things possible that your competitors thought were impossible in sports before you?

Kobayashi: First and foremost, I think I was really suited to this sport. I was doing it individually, I wasn’t that interested in team sports. It’s really about the mindset and the spirit. Competitive eating as a sport was probably the most important thing for me. I also enjoy extreme sports. I like things that have an element of danger and an element of challenge.

ESPN: You told us that you first noticed Joey when he placed third in the 2004 competition, but that he turned it into a rivalry with you when he won in 2007. What do you remember from the 2007 competition at Nathan’s?

Kobayashi: I was disappointed to lose. But at the same time, this place had been a very lonely place for me for many years, trying to promote competitive eating on my own. And I think that now that there was a competitor, there was a sense of relief, that it was no longer up to me to just keep improving my grades.

ESPN: You’ve been the champion in this sport for so many years. Once he came out, it seemed like you were playing the villain. How did you feel about your role in the competition once Joey came on the scene?

Kobayashi: The fact that I was turned into a villain was a huge shock. I had worked so hard. I had worked so hard to raise the bar for competitive eating as well as Nathan’s competition. And for this to happen was like a slap in the face. It really hurt me to look at the way they portrayed me in the promotion of the competition. I still can’t forgive the organizers of the competition for doing that. It’s a very bad memory for me.

ESPN: How did they photograph you?

Kobayashi: A lot of the publicity was about how Kobayashi came to the United States to ruin Independence Day, which is celebrated in the United States. He was here to insult Americans. And I think there were people who thought that was true. That was the kind of energy that came out and some fans, because of that intense hatred for me, chose to cheer for an American competitor instead of me.

ESPN: In 2010, as I understand it, Major League Eating wanted you to sign an exclusive contract to compete only in their events. You refused, and because of that, they banned you from the competition that year. What happened on the day of the 2010 competition?

Kobayashi: We were still negotiating until the last minute. Then suddenly, Nathan’s company put out a press release saying Kobayashi wouldn’t be competing. My lawyers and I were stunned. I had just moved to the United States, determined to build a career there. I had nothing to do now, so I had to at least leave a message to the world. That day, I decided to go to Coney Island about an hour and a half before the competition started. My friends had designed a “Free Kobayashi” T-shirt. I was hoping that a journalist would see what was written on my shirt.

The press release that Major League Eating put out was that I was scared to compete against Chestnut and that I decided to run away. That’s not the message I wanted people to believe. I really wanted people to know that this was more about my rights to compete in other competitions. I snuck into the crowd of the competition and my then-girlfriend, who is now my wife, decided to carry me on his shoulders so people could see that I was there in the audience, and the press got it. As you know, the event was being broadcast live on ESPN. My picture was shown on the big screen, and the crowd started chanting, “Let him eat!” I got really excited by the chants, and I decided to run to the stage. And because the security and police were very aware of me, they made space for me to get on stage. But once I got there, I think the organizers told the police that I needed to be arrested. And that’s what the police should have done. The same police that made space for me to get on stage.

ESPN: What was your goal when you went on stage? What did you want people to see?

Kobayashi: It was about me trying to tell people that I’m ready. I’m ready to eat, to challenge, to beat Joey.

ESPN: Now, nearly 15 years later, you’re about to compete again. But in May, Netflix released a show called “Hack Your Health,” in which you seem to say you plan to retire from competitive eating. What prompted this decision?

Kobayashi: As for the timing of the broadcast, it wasn’t what I intended. This show was filmed three years ago during the pandemic. At that moment when I did the interview, I hadn’t competed for two years. So, mentally and physically, I wasn’t in the place where I have an athlete’s mind. Through the show and finding out the facts about what was happening to my brain, I felt like, yeah, I might be thinking about retiring because of the situation we were all in. And whoever translated my words into English, well, what I said in Japanese was that I might end up retiring eventually.

ESPN: Even though this Netflix special was filmed three years ago, at the time you were very concerned about the impact of competitive eating on your body and mind. What concerns do you still have today?

Kobayashi: The truth is, this is something I don’t want to think about. If you start thinking that your sport is dangerous or that it’s not good for your body, you can’t force yourself to do it. But what has to be said is that this sport is not safe for the general public. It’s clearly not good for your body. Even my teammates who have competed with me over the years, there have already been three people who have died in their 50s or under 50.

ESPN: After a five-year absence, we are witnessing the long-awaited rematch between you and Joey Chestnut, which was 15 years in the making. How did this come about and what made you want to do it?

Kobayashi: I just want to decide who eats the fastest and who is the strongest. It must be decided once and for all.

ESPN: What was the training like and what was the most different thing about training for competitive eating at age 46 compared to when you were a teenager?

Kobayashi: I’m not that young anymore, so my recovery is slower during training. But when you start thinking about all the negatives, all the drawbacks, I can’t really focus on that. We have to defy pure logic. If I say I’m going to win, I’m going to win, and that’s it.

ESPN: What is your prediction for the Labor Day competition?

Kobayashi: I want everyone to look forward to this event. It will be broadcast worldwide, and the greatest player in the world will be determined. And that player will be me.