See a container of Cup Noodles at a convenience store and you might conceive of dorm rooms and cheap kilocalorie .
But there was a time when eating from the product ’s iconic packaging exuded cosmopolitanism , when the on - the - go repast symbolized theory — a Japanese industrial intellectual nourishment with an American style .
Cup Noodles — first commercialize in Japan 50 years ago , on Sept. 18 , 1971 , with an English name , the " s " left off because of a translation mistake — are portable instantaneous ramen eaten with a fork directly from their blank , red and gold cup .
I search how products move between America and Japan , creating new practices in the process . To me , Cup Noodle tells a tarradiddle of hybridize cultures , and their transpacific journeying unveil how Japan has view America since World War II .
A Flash of Inspiration
It is a chronicle widely severalize in Japan : Cup Noodles were make by the same soul who fabricate clamant ramen , Ando Momofuku , who , in 1948 , founded Nissin Foods .
Ando was born in Japan - occupy Taiwan and moved to Osaka in 1933 . In warfare - bust Japan , Ando determine mass line up to buy flash trough of noodlesfrom stands in pitch-dark market place . The bonce were made from straw flour donated by the United States to make bread , a solid food more woof but less common in the Nipponese diet .
Ando want to make noodles the great unwashed could well eat at home , so he built alaboratory shed in his backyard .
After several failed try , inspiration strike in 1958 . While observing his wife , Masako , frying tempura , he note that crude removed the wet .
He then substantiate that fried and dried noodlescould be remoisturized when boil . Seasoning powder and dehydrated toppings could be added , making infinite flavor combinations possible . Ando choose chicken for the first flavor because Gallus gallus soup seemed rich , nutritious and American .
Because Ando ’s " Chikin Ramen"cost six time the price of a roll of bracing noodles , he had trouble attracting investor . His solution was to take his product instantly to the public through tasting events . Chikin Ramen caught on and later became one of the most prevalent foods in postwar Japan .
In the mid-1960s , Nipponese sales of his Chikin Ramen — and spinoff product like " Spagheny , " an exigent spaghetti make in 1964 — declined , in part , because of market place saturation . Ando then sought a new mart for instant ramen : the United States .
In the U.S. at that time , Japanese foods likesukiyaki — beef and vegetables cooked in a hotpot — were in vogue because they seemed exotic , yet fit the world-wide American palate . Ando believe instant ramen could do the same .
So in 1966 he travel to the United States to upgrade Chikin Ramen . He was surprised to see Americans weaken pack of dry noodles into part , put them into cup and pour stewing water over them , rather than develop Chikin Ramen in a pot andthen dish it in a bowl .
When Ando returned to Japan , he typeset out to craft a new product inspired by this American preparation technique to sell in Japan .
On the Go Becomes All the Rage
After much trial and error , the Nissin team organize a way to wrap aplastic foam cup around dry out noodles place in the gist for easy expanding upon . Different flavors were place atop the noggin to aid them wangle well and make them wait like a fuller meal . The cup had a pull back lidinspired by a container of macadamia tree nutsAndo had eaten on his transpacific flight .
Otaka Takeshi , who created thelogo for the Osaka 1970 world ’s bazaar , design the cup to look cosmopolitan and cutting edge , with large English intelligence in a red psychedelic font above minuscule Japanese word and with gold bandsinspired by expensive dinner plates . Cup Noodle included around the same amount of ramen as the dried packs butcost four time as muchbecause it was more expensive to make . The price made Cup Noodle seem luxurious .
But in Japan , eating while walking is considered unmannered . It ’s also difficult to do with chopsticks . So Nissin decided to modify how people eat . Each Cup Noodle came with a small charge plate fork .
Nissin held tasting events in Japan to promote Cup Noodle and instruct people how to eat it . The most successful was held Nov. 21 , 1971 , in Tokyo ’s Ginza shopping dominion . It direct youthful adults strolling the " Pedestrian Paradise , " Japan ’s most stylish street .
More than20,000 Cup Noodle unitssold in four hours .
Nissin also deliver the production to workers on the move , like the Japan Self - Defense Forces . Cup Noodle receive an unintended media boost when insurance coverage of a hostage crisis calledthe Asama - Sansō Incidentshowedpolice officer eating Cup Noodle to stay warm .
More Than a Fashionable Food
Cup Noodle epitomized the dominant belief in postwar Japan that a better life could be achieve through convenience and comfort , whether it was through gismo like refrigerators and televisions or takeout food .
Japan ’s first contrivance storesopened in 1969and became primary marketers of Cup Noodle . Notably , Nissin adjudge its Ginza Cup Noodle event in front of Japan ’s first McDonald ’s , which had opened on the Pedestrian Paradise four months earlier , July 20 , 1971 . Cup Noodle was one of the first foods sold in vending machine in Japan , with thefirst Cup Noodle monger machineinstalled near the Tokyo function of the Nihon Keizai fiscal newspaper inNovember 1971 .
Over clock time , the manufacture process improved and prices send away , and instant ramen became a go - to food for economically parlous populations .
Cup Noodle has deployed several successful Japanese merchandising strategies . They include eject a unwavering stream of new smack — from Japanese comfort solid food like chicken teriyaki to alien fare like curry — along with attention - seize limited - edition flavors like " Cheechili Curmato " ( chilli , tomato and European cheeseflower curry , anyone ? ) .
Marketerstapped into nostalgiaandfan collaborationsto help deal the product . Nissin also adopted the pop Nipponese advert practice of hiring American celebrities to incline their production , with James Brown singing about miso - flavored Cup Noodle to the strain of " Get On Up"in a memorable 1992 television ad .
Cup Noodles Hides Its Japanese Roots
None of these strategies was used to deal Cup Noodle in the United States , however .
The product submit a unlike way of life in the U.S. by downplaying foreignness and fashion and by becoming an ordinary American food .
Cup Noodle was first sold in the United States in November 1973 at a meter when Japanese productslike Toyota carswere plan to be unlike from those made in America yet easy for Americans to understand , pronounce and accept .
Americanize as " Cup O’Noodles " — and later rename " Cup Noodles , " with an " s , " in 1993 — it had short noodle that could be eaten with a spoonful and fewer flavors than those extend in Japan .
Nissin ’s first overseas factory opened in 1973 in Lancaster , Pennsylvania . Now , in 2021 , Cup Noodles is made in 80 countries and territories , each with itsown local variants . For illustration , you may eat masala Cup Noodles in India and mushroom Cup Noodles in Germany . By May 2021,50 billion unitsof Nissin ’s Cup Noodles had sold worldwide .
In Japan , Cup Noodles now represents a mix of trendiness and nostalgia . Visitors toJapan ’s Cup Noodles Museumscan make their own personalise Cup Noodles . Popular characterslike Yodaand Hello Kitty have hawked Cup Noodles in Japan .
In the U.S. , a neon 60 - groundwork Cup Noodles advertising cling in New York ’s Times Square from 1996 to 2006 — asymbol of Nissin ’s ball-shaped reach . It represented the idea — coarse in Japan — that making it crowing in America is the Francis Scott Key to concern succeeder .
In America , however , Cup Noodles has succeeded by hiding its Nipponese roots .
This article is republished fromThe Conversationunder a Creative Commons permit . you may find the original article here .
Alisa Freedman is a professor of Japanese lit , cultural bailiwick and gender at the University of Oregon . She is also editor program - in - chief of the U.S.-Japan Women ’s Journal .
