The Birth of Instant Ramen: From Postwar Scarcity to a Global Food Revolution

On August 25, 1958, a man peered into a pot of boiling oil inside a small, ramshackle wooden shed on the outskirts of Osaka, Japan. His name was Momofuku Ando. Forty-eight years old at the time, he had lost his entire fortune and was searching for one last way he could contribute to the world. What he invented that day was no mere noodle. It was the birth of the most consumed instant food in human history — a product that would go on to sell more than 100 billion units.^[1]

Postwar Japan’s Hunger: The Seed of Invention

When World War II ended in 1945, Japan stood amid ruins. In December of that year, the country recorded its worst rice harvest in 42 years, and citizens of the capital, Tokyo, roamed black markets in search of food.^[2] Illegal street stalls sprang up across the city, and one of the most popular offerings was ramen — noodles served in steaming broth.

The Allied occupation forces (GHQ) that governed postwar Japan supplied massive quantities of surplus American wheat flour to address the food crisis.^[3] Between 1945 and 1952, that surplus wheat fundamentally reshaped Japanese food culture. A people accustomed to rice as their staple began adapting to bread and noodles made from flour. Ramen street stalls multiplied explosively, and when the Japanese government eased regulations on food vending in the early 1950s, the true era of ramen began in earnest.^[3]

On a cold evening, Momofuku Ando witnessed a long queue of people waiting to eat ramen in an Osaka black-market alley. Watching hungry people endure the freezing wind for the sake of a single bowl of hot noodles, he set himself one goal: “I will create a delicious ramen that people can make at home simply by adding boiling water.”^[1]

Momofuku Ando: An Inventor Who Rose from Failure

Momofuku Ando’s life was a recurring cycle of failure and resurgence. Born in 1910 in Chiayi, Taiwan, his birth name was Wu Baifu (吳百福).^[4] He started a textile business at 22 and moved to Osaka, Japan in 1933, where he continued his business ventures while studying economics. However, his path was rocky — he was arrested on charges of tax evasion and served two years in prison.^[4]

In 1957, the credit union where he served as a director went bankrupt, leaving him saddled with its debts. He lost everything except the rented house he lived in in Ikeda City, Osaka.^[4] He was 47 years old. In a situation that would have broken most people, Ando turned this despair into fuel for invention.

He built a small wooden shed in one corner of his yard and devoted himself to research there every day until the early hours of the morning. He prepared his own equipment and materials, slept an average of only four hours a night, and continued his research for a full year without a single day’s rest.^[1]

The Flash-Fry Revelation: A Lightning-Bolt Insight

After countless trials and errors, Ando ran into a decisive problem. Pre-cooking noodles and then drying them preserved them well enough, but when hot water was added again, the original springy texture did not return. Steaming, baking, or drying with hot air all produced unsatisfactory results.

The breakthrough came in an unexpected moment. One evening, as Ando watched his wife Masako (仁子) prepare shrimp tempura in the kitchen, he had a pivotal realization. He noticed that as moisture was expelled from the shrimp in the hot oil, countless tiny holes formed across their surface.^[1] Those holes could later serve as channels for water to penetrate during cooking.

“When noodles are deep-fried in high-temperature oil, the moisture inside them evaporates instantaneously, creating countless microscopic pores. Thanks to those pores, when hot water is added, the noodles rapidly absorb moisture and return to a soft texture.” This is precisely the principle behind the “flash fry” technique still used in instant ramen manufacturing today.^[1][5]

Ando applied this principle to noodle production through hundreds of repeated experiments — developing the optimal flour blend, the thickness and wavy shape of the noodle strands, the frying temperature and duration, and the chicken-flavored broth powder formulation, all on his own.

The Birth of Chicken Ramen (1958)

After a year of solitary research, on August 25, 1958, Momofuku Ando introduced the world’s first instant ramen to the public: “Chicken Ramen” (チキンラーメン, Chikin Ramen).^[1]

Chicken Ramen was an innovative product: inside the bag was a dried noodle block already coated with chicken-flavored broth powder, so consumers could eat in just 2–3 minutes simply by pouring boiling water — no separate cooking required. Nissin Foods (日清食品), the company Ando founded, brought this product to market.^[6]

Initial market reception, however, was lukewarm. At the time, Chicken Ramen was priced at 35 yen — six times the cost of an equivalent serving of fresh udon or soba noodles.^[5] Retailers and wholesalers were skeptical, and some distributors refused outright, saying it was “too expensive to sell.”

But consumers who actually tasted it reacted very differently. Word spread quickly that the flavor was good and preparation was easy, and orders began flooding in to distributors. In its first year alone, 13 million bags were sold, and trucks from wholesalers lined up outside the factory to collect the product.^[5] Chicken Ramen, once dismissed as a luxury item, almost instantly became a nationwide staple across Japan.

The Cup Noodle Innovation (1971): A Leap toward the World

Unsatisfied with the success of Chicken Ramen, Ando dreamed bigger. He sought to expand instant ramen to the global market.

In 1966, while visiting the United States, Ando was demonstrating Chicken Ramen to a supermarket buyer when he witnessed an intriguing scene. The Americans tore open the bag of ramen, broke the noodle block in half, placed it in a paper cup, and poured hot water over it.^[1] This simple act — using a single cup for everything, with no pot or bowl needed — planted a new idea in Ando’s mind.

After five years of research, on September 18, 1971, Nissin Foods launched “Cup Noodle” (カップヌードル).^[1] The Cup Noodle’s container was far more than simple packaging. A single Styrofoam (expanded polystyrene) cup served simultaneously as packaging, cooking vessel, and eating utensil. The noodle block was suspended slightly inside the cup so that hot water could circulate from the bottom upward, cooking the noodles evenly and quickly.^[1]

Cup Noodle also faced initial consumer indifference. Its price of 100 yen was four times that of a packet of ramen (25 yen), and retailers were reluctant. The turning point came from an unexpected event. In February 1972, armed members of the United Red Army (連合赤軍) took hostages at a mountain lodge in Asama, Nagano Prefecture, and held off police in a standoff lasting nine days — the “Asama-Sansō Incident” (あさま山荘事件). Police officers conducting the siege in sub-zero temperatures were broadcast on national television eating Cup Noodle,^[7] and the resulting word of mouth caused Cup Noodle sales to skyrocket.

The Birth of Korean Ramen: Samyang Ramen (1963)

The wave of instant ramen quickly reached Korea. In 1963, while the scars of the Korean War had not yet fully healed, entrepreneur Jeon Jung-yoon (全仲潤) founded Samyang Foods with the goal of providing inexpensive, convenient meals to a hungry nation.^[8]

Jeon introduced ramen manufacturing equipment and technology from Japan’s Myojo Foods (明星食品). On September 15, 1963, Korea’s first instant ramen, “Samyang Ramen,” was launched. Priced at just 10 won per 100g, it came in an orange bag with chicken-flavored soup powder.^[8]

Initial reception was cool. Consumers unfamiliar with noodle culture resisted the new preparation method. Samyang Foods gradually won them over through free tasting events and aggressive marketing.^[8] The decisive turning point came in 1966, when former President Park Chung-hee suggested adding red chili powder to better suit Korean tastes.^[9] With a spicy, bold broth added, the product completely captured the Korean palate.

Sales that stood at 2.4 million units in 1966 leaped to 15 million in 1969, and the Korean ramen market then grew explosively.^[8]

Shin Ramyun and the Global Conquest of K-Ramen

One product is indispensable to the history of Korean ramen: Shin Ramyun, launched by Nongshim in 1986. Distinguished by its striking red packaging and fiery spiciness, Shin Ramyun has held the top position in the Korean ramen market for nearly 40 years since its launch, with cumulative global sales exceeding one billion units.^[9]

In recent years, however, the product that has shaken the global ramen market is Samyang Foods’ “Buldak Bokkeum Myeon” (Fire Chicken Stir-Fry Noodles). Launched in 2012, this product was initially regarded as a niche item due to its extreme heat, but as the “Buldak Challenge” spread globally via YouTube and TikTok, it became a worldwide hit.^[9] As a result, Samyang Foods’ annual revenue surged from approximately 909 billion won in 2022 to approximately 1.728 trillion won in 2024 — nearly doubling.^[9]

The Cultural Significance of Instant Ramen

Momofuku Ando deeply believed in the social significance of instant ramen. He sincerely believed that “ramen can contribute to world peace” and took this as his life’s mission.^[4] That belief was no mere slogan. Over the decades, instant ramen has genuinely been used as emergency relief food in food crises around the world.

Today, instant ramen has crossed the boundary of simple food to become a unique cultural symbol. In American prisons, it circulates as an unofficial currency replacing cigarettes;^[10] on college campuses, it is seen as a symbol of struggling youth; and in convenience stores and supermarkets around the world, it is one of the most familiar products on any shelf.

Ando established the International Ramen Manufacturers Association (IRMA, now the World Instant Noodles Association, WINA) in 1997 to promote the development and quality improvement of the instant ramen industry.^[4] Until his death on January 5, 2007, at the age of 96, he reportedly said he “ate a bowl of Chicken Ramen every morning,” and he loved his invention until the very end.^[4]

Today: A World of 123.1 Billion Servings

Today, instant ramen is the most consumed ready-to-eat food on the planet. In 2024 alone, 123.1 billion servings of instant ramen were consumed worldwide — a record-breaking figure.^[11] Divided by the global population of approximately 8 billion people, that amounts to roughly 15 servings per person per year.

The leading consumer is China (including Hong Kong), accounting for approximately 37% of global consumption — 44 billion servings — followed by Indonesia (13 billion servings) and other Asian nations such as India, Japan, and Vietnam.^[11] South Korea ranks among the world’s top countries in per-capita consumption.^[11]

The market size exceeded $61 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow further through 2030.^[12]

There is a curious paradox embedded in the story that began in that wooden shed at the side of a yard. Momofuku Ando created instant ramen to solve hunger, yet today the product serves not only the hungry but also the office worker pulling a late shift, the prison inmate trading it as unofficial currency, the disaster relief volunteer distributing lifelines, and the TikTok creator filming a spice challenge. The fact that the simplest idea — “just add boiling water” — turned out to be the hardest to achieve, and that it ultimately led to 123.1 billion servings a year, is itself a paradox as small and as vast as the microscopic pores Ando first noticed in his wife’s tempura.