Honestly, I'd rather the terms state that if you enter from an excluded region you exempt yourself from the in-game prize but can still be declared a winner.

I'm from the UK and even if they put up an EU event with the same item reward I won't care, it was this contest that got me excited. If they offered different prizes for all contests it would be exactly the same, somebody is bound to want one of the other two.

It's a little confusing as to why the contests for the NA and JP are different but offer the same reward, is it purely to get some variety or rather an informed decision that JP players wouldn't enjoy the cooking competition as much.