Japan yesterday bade farewell to Momofuku Ando, known as the inventor of instant noodles that have become a global household product, after he died aged 96.
Ando died of acute heart failure on Friday, said Nissin Food Products Co, the company he founded in 1948 in the aftermath of World War II and built into a multi-billion dollar empire.
Japanese newspapers published lengthy obituaries of the businessman yesterday with the influential Asahi Shimbun praising him for bringing "instant noodles to the world and into space."
PHOTO: AP
The mass-circulation Yomiuri Shimbun said Ando started from scratch in developing an instant noodle which has "grown with the age of mass consumption" and added "a new chapter in the history of the world's food culture."
Born Wu Bai-fu (
After founding the precursor of Nissin, Ando put on the market "Chicken Ramen," the first instant noodle product, in 1958. The chicken-flavored dried noodle cake could be served in minutes by pouring hot water over it in a bowl.
He invented the product, which soon became a hit, at a time when his business ventures were in trouble. As managing director of a credit union that went bankrupt, he had given up his assets to cover the debt.
In his biography, Ando said he was inspired to develop the product when he saw a long line of people waiting to buy a steaming soup noodle at a black market stall in a war-ravaged city.
"Peace prevails when food suffices," he said.
Sales of Chicken Ramen rocketed after Japan's number-one general trading house Mitsubishi Corp was commissioned in 1959 to help promote the product as the country was taking off on its rapid post-war industrialization.
In 1970, Nissin established its US subsidiary, Nissin Foods (USA) Inc, and in the next year launched the "Cup Noodle," a pre-cooked slab of noodles in a waterproof styrofoam container.
Nissin has led the global instant noodle industry which sells 85.7 billion servings each year. Nissin's annual sales of instant noodles amount to 10 billion single servings in 10 countries.
Ando opened a museum of instant Ramen in Osaka in 1999 and retired from the chairman's post in 2005 to serve in an honorary role as founder-chairman.
In 2005, Nissin supplied a vacuum packed instant noodle or "Space Ram" to Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi aboard the US space shuttle Discovery.
"It is like a dream that people from rivaling countries can eat Ramen together in space," Ando told reporters at that time.
According to the Mainichi Shimbun, Ando was last seen in public on Wednesday when he made a New Year's speech at Nissin's head office in Osaka and had a lunch with executives, a bowl of Chicken Ramen with rice cake.
DIVIDED VIEWS: Although the Fed agreed on holding rates steady, some officials see no rate cuts for this year, while 10 policymakers foresee two or more cuts There are a lot of unknowns about the outlook for the economy and interest rates, but US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled at least one thing seems certain: Higher prices are coming. Fed policymakers voted unanimously to hold interest rates steady at a range of 4.25 percent to 4.50 percent for a fourth straight meeting on Wednesday, as they await clarity on whether tariffs would leave a one-time or more lasting mark on inflation. Powell said it is still unclear how much of the bill would fall on the shoulders of consumers, but he expects to learn more about tariffs
NOT JUSTIFIED: The bank’s governor said there would only be a rate cut if inflation falls below 1.5% and economic conditions deteriorate, which have not been detected The central bank yesterday kept its key interest rates unchanged for a fifth consecutive quarter, aligning with market expectations, while slightly lowering its inflation outlook amid signs of cooling price pressures. The move came after the US Federal Reserve held rates steady overnight, despite pressure from US President Donald Trump to cut borrowing costs. Central bank board members unanimously voted to maintain the discount rate at 2 percent, the secured loan rate at 2.375 percent and the overnight lending rate at 4.25 percent. “We consider the policy decision appropriate, although it suggests tightening leaning after factoring in slackening inflation and stable GDP growth,”
Meta Platforms Inc offered US$100 million bonuses to OpenAI employees in an unsuccessful bid to poach the ChatGPT maker’s talent and strengthen its own generative artificial intelligence (AI) teams, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said. Facebook’s parent company — a competitor of OpenAI — also offered “giant” annual salaries exceeding US$100 million to OpenAI staffers, Altman said in an interview on the Uncapped with Jack Altman podcast released on Tuesday. “It is crazy,” Sam Altman told his brother Jack in the interview. “I’m really happy that at least so far none of our best people have decided to take them
As they zigzagged from one machine to another in the searing African sun, the workers were covered in black soot. However, the charcoal they were making is known as “green,” and backers hope it can save impoverished Chad from rampant deforestation. Chad, a vast, landlocked country of 19 million people perched at the crossroads of north and central Africa, is steadily turning to desert. It has lost more than 90 percent of its forest cover since the 1970s, hit by climate change and overexploitation of trees for household uses such as cooking, officials say. “Green charcoal” aims to protect what
RSS