Rona Conti noted that a Japanese competitive eating DVD will go on sale in March. The programs offered appear to be the two 2005 "Gluttonous King" contests and the 2006 "Gluttonous Queen" competition.

December 29, 2009 at 1:34 am by ojrifkin · More posts about:Merchandise, Television | Permalink * Comments (1)

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  1. Crazy Legs Mom said (Registered February 16, 2006)

    December 29, 2009 @ 3:15 pm

    Oogui 101:

    At one time I wrote that the center of competitive eating had migrated to New York from Japan. I believe that was after the second year Kobayashi won Nathans. When he first came and stunned everyone, he and the other Japanese eaters were sponsored by a Japanese television station.

    “Oogui”, or eating a lot, and “hayagui”, or eating quickly (and a lot) were very popular, with many televised programs when I first went to Japan ten years ago. Having taken photos at a Nathan’s contest won by Nakajima, I showed them to my students of English and was very surprised to find that they recognized all of the hoopla and were very enthusiastic to see the photos.

    Kobayashi soon appeared on many magazine covers, but all of the television programs were pulled off the air when a middle school student, imitating the Japanese “Food Fighters”, got bread lodged in his throat, lay in a coma and then died. Thus, the second year Kobayashi came to the US for Nathans, there was no Japanese television sponsor.

    Some eating contests in Japan have been rituals of very long duration (wanko-soba). Japan has tons or programs related to food in various ways. It seems that contests started again a few years ago but concentrating on long contests and having women be the contestants. Over time, it also seems that there has been a resurgence of competitive eating in Japan in a slightly different form and with television personalities like Gal Sone and Shirota becoming extremely popular.

    The issuance of a dvd indicates to me that competitive eating is very much back in Japan though in somewhat different forms from that in the US. Perhaps it is the globalization of gluttony we are witnessing.

    Yours Truly,

    Ms. Non Humble Smarty Japanese Pants.

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