Takeru Kobayashi (born 
1978) is a 
Japanese man who holds the world record for hotdog eating. On July 4, 2001, he ate 50 of them in 12 minutes at the Nathan's 
Coney Island eating challenge, shattering the previous record of 25. The following year, he broke his own record by eating 50 and a half. Nobody else has come close to his record.
 
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