---
title: "The Father of Instant Noodles: Imprisoned Twice, Bankrupt Three Times, at 48 He Created Instant Noodles That Changed the World—With Only One Secret!"
description: "In 1957, 47-year-old Momofuku Ando, penniless, built a small shed in his backyard to develop instant noodles, sleeping less than four hours a day and accumulating mountains of failed attempts. After 1958, his life skyrocketed: at 48, he created the world's first instant noodles; at 61, he developed the Cup Noodles that conquered America; at 94, he made space ramen for astronauts. Before 48, he had been framed and imprisoned twice and had lost everything in financial ventures."
author: "二毛"
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published: "2018-05-16"
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# The Father of Instant Noodles: Imprisoned Twice, Bankrupt Three Times, at 48 He Created Instant Noodles That Changed the World—With Only One Secret!

> In 1957, 47-year-old Momofuku Ando, penniless, built a small shed in his backyard to develop instant noodles, sleeping less than four hours a day and accumulating mountains of failed attempts. After 1958, his life skyrocketed: at 48, he created the world's first instant noodles; at 61, he developed the Cup Noodles that conquered America; at 94, he made space ramen for astronauts. Before 48, he had been framed and imprisoned twice and had lost everything in financial ventures.

In 1957, 47-year-old Momofuku Ando, penniless, built a small shed in his backyard to develop instant noodles. He slept less than four hours a day, and failed attempts piled up like a mountain.

After 1958, his life seemed to be on a roll.

> At 48, he developed the world's first instant noodles and successfully launched them.
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> At 61, he developed Cup Noodles, which influenced the world and were launched in the United States.
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> At 94, he developed space ramen, benefiting astronauts.

Before 48, he had been framed and imprisoned twice, and had tried financial trusts only to lose everything. At 48, his instant noodles became one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century, and he became the father of instant noodles.

Recalling these experiences, he said: **"All failures and humiliations made me stronger."**

Momofuku Ando

Today's CEO of Nissin Foods, Ando's son Hirotoshi Ando, described his father in his book: **"He passed away at the age of 96. Whether it was due to his vigorous energy or his terrifying dedication to work, coupled with his extraordinary worry..."**

This is the impression Ando left on many people.

Hirotoshi Ando had watched his father work since childhood. It is said that Ando seemed to be thinking whether asleep or awake, resting only four hours a day.

Why could Ando still create great products at 61? Because he knew there was only one path to success: **focus.** (The following is a first-person account)

**1**

**Before 48: Imprisoned Twice, Bankrupt Three Times**

**But I Never Surrendered to Fate**

Looking back at the first half of my life, it was full of ups and downs.

My parents died early, and I lived with my grandfather from a young age. Because he ran a silk shop, I learned some business knowledge from him.

At 22, I used the property my parents left to start a fiber company, and later established a trading association in Osaka.

Momofuku Ando in his youth

At that time, there were few trading companies handling knitwear, so we had a market advantage and business was decent. We dealt in knitwear trade, optical machinery, and precision instrument manufacturing. Later, I also founded the economics department at Ritsumeikan University.

But soon, fate played a joke on me, and I suffered a series of blows.

The company was destroyed in an air raid during World War II, and I went bankrupt overnight.

Later, I was framed and arrested on charges of illegally selling goods on the black market. During my detention, I was prosecuted, beaten, and forced to sign a prepared confession.

After being released, I started a new business, cooperating with others to manufacture military engine parts. But unexpectedly, after the war ended, I was accused of tax evasion by American occupational authorities and tax officials, and was imprisoned again, with all my property confiscated.

At this point, many might think life was over.

But I knew only I could save myself. I hired a team of lawyers to sue the U.S. government and finally cleared my name.

After experiencing ups and downs, at 40 I started a business again, becoming chairman of a credit union. After seven years, it went bankrupt again.

At that time, I was truly destitute. To pay wages, I sold off all my family assets and could only live in a small rented room in Ikeda, Osaka. Everything was back to zero.

Before 48, I experienced the process from wealth to nothing, was framed and imprisoned twice, and went bankrupt three times. **Approaching 50 with nothing accomplished, my life was full of hardships, but every step was not in vain.**

**2**

**At 47, I Started Developing Instant Noodles, Failing Countless Times**

**At 48, I Created the First Instant Noodles and Made a Comeback**

I thought, **"Since I failed, I'll just start over."**

At that time, Japan was heavily dumping American flour, and many companies were opening bakeries to make processed bread. The government encouraged people to eat bread to fill their stomachs, which was painful for Japanese who loved rice.

Later, I noticed that many people actually liked eating hot noodles. They often had to queue 20 meters long just to get a bowl of noodles, which wasted time and made them endure hunger while waiting.

I wondered if I could make a type of ramen that could be eaten instantly by just adding water—convenient and delicious.

In the spring of 1958, I built a simple 10-square-meter shed in my backyard, bought a noodle-making machine, and began developing instant noodles, sleeping less than 4 hours a day.

The shed where instant noodles were developed

At first, I added seasoning to flour, rolled it into noodles, steamed them, and dried them. But the result was not individual strands of noodles but clumps like rice. The idea was simple, but putting it into practice was not easy.

After several attempts and repeated failures, I adopted a different method of adding seasoning.

So how to roll and flavor the noodles? I tried drying and hot-air drying methods, but they were too time-consuming and not suitable for large-scale factory production.

At that time, whether sleeping or awake, I was thinking about how to solve this problem. I worked late into the night every day. I made and discarded, discarded and made, with failed products piling up.

One day, I saw my wife making "tempura" and had a flash of inspiration: could noodles be fried and dried using the "oil heat drying method," placed in a special "mold"? I tried it, and the result was formed noodles.

Tempura

In 1958, the development of instant noodles was basically complete, and we entered the trial production stage. I mobilized the whole family, asking them to distribute trial products to acquaintances for tasting. The feedback was: "It has a deliciousness different from existing ramen, and it's very convenient. It can become a new product."

**At that time, I truly felt all the effort was not in vain. In 1958, we launched the first "Chicken Ramen"!**

Chicken Ramen in 1958

Office workers, outdoor workers, government agencies... people busy making money and reviving the economy chose this food to save time. Instant noodles caused a sales frenzy in Japan.

Subsequently, I asked a friend working at a trading company to send samples of the new product to the United States to test reactions. The U.S. side immediately replied, ordering another 500 boxes.

Seeing the enthusiastic response, I took my staff to try selling at department stores, promoting with the slogan "Ramen that can be eaten two minutes after pouring boiling water." Customers were skeptical, but the instant noodles they brought were quickly sold out.

Before long, this instant noodle became a bestseller, and the same year, Nissin Foods was established.

Wholesalers saw the boom and rushed to stock up. Warehouses couldn't keep up with demand. In April 1959 alone, 1.3 million packs of instant noodles were sold. To expand production, the factory was later enlarged to 24,000 square meters.

**Success is never too late; it only requires persistent focus and dedication.** You don't need excellent equipment or funds to invent and discover, but you must be curious about the things around you, discover consumer needs in daily life, and act quickly.

**3**

**Instant Noodles Swept Japan, Nissin Crisis Emerged**

**At 61, I Developed the First Cup Noodles, Influencing the World**

In the early days of Nissin, many market followers imitated our products, and the instant noodle market was chaotic with mixed quality. In 1961, we applied for the trademark and patent for "Chicken Ramen," successfully defeating many counterfeit manufacturers.

But crises came one after another. Instant noodles became a hit, and Japanese noodle makers wanted a piece of the pie. One prominent one was dry noodle manufacturer Kiyoshi Okui.

In November 1960, he launched a type of instant noodle with a separate seasoning packet. The advantage was that customers could adjust the flavor to their taste. At that time, he was our biggest competitor.

Soon, more and more instant noodles appeared, and everyone hoped to create unique soup bases to dominate the market. Nissin, with its single flavor, faced a crisis. The entry of competitors shrank our market share.

Nissin had no choice but to continuously improve quality, change flavors, and refine packaging, while also looking to overseas markets.

**Product Innovation: Developing the World's First Cup Noodles**

When I took bagged instant noodles to the U.S. to promote, I discovered that Americans used shallow soup bowls that could only soak one-third of the noodles.

I never expected that the key factor determining the market would be our daily tableware.

Should I retreat? Absolutely not!

Later, I noticed that some young female employees at an American company broke the flavored instant noodles into pieces, put them in a glass, and poured boiling water over them to eat.

Suddenly, I thought: if we could produce a cup-shaped instant noodle that could be cooked in 3 minutes, wouldn't it be even more convenient?

After repeated research, we decided to use a 300ml paper cup with an aluminum lid. By using air to isolate the noodle block from the mold, we found a method to make the noodle block.

Next was developing the ingredient packet. Shrimp represented good fortune and was expensive at the time. If placed in cup noodles, it would give consumers a sense of luxury and higher quality.

The R&D staff tried several common shrimp species, but none achieved the ideal effect. There are 2,500 species of shrimp in the world; searching one by one would be exhausting.

Later, we heard about a shrimp salad. We went to a Western restaurant, bought it, and experimented. After 20 hours, the shrimp turned a bright vermilion, and we finally succeeded.

In 1971, we developed the world's first cup noodles, named "Cup Noodle." It entered the Japanese market and also landed on the American continent.

With this improvement, Chicken Ramen gained a large market share.

But the instant noodles with separate seasoning packets were aggressive and gradually took away market share from Chicken Ramen. Facing this, Nissin had to start making instant noodles with separate seasoning packets, which allowed us to tie with other companies.

**Printing Production Dates on Packaging**

In 1965, there were rumors of people getting poisoned from eating Chicken Ramen. Investigation revealed that some small workshops had allowed bacteria to breed because the frying temperature was too low.

But these workshops continued to sell counterfeit ramen at low prices, tempting consumers. Seeing my hard work about to be ruined, we decided to print the manufacturing date on all Nissin products, making it clear at a glance.

Before this, nowhere in the world could you find food with a manufacturing date printed on it. As a result, this method was incorporated into food hygiene laws, and eventually, all food packaging had production dates.

**Expanding Categories: Test Marketing 300,000 Portions of Fried Noodles**

During production, there was a problem that couldn't be solved.

To pack the finished instant noodles into bags, many noodles were broken. These broken noodles were fine for drinking snacks, but as a product, they could only be sold at half price, unable to fetch the price of whole noodles.

One day, an employee accidentally burned the instant noodles while cooking them. Later, we found that the noodles that weren't completely burnt, when boiled with water until dry and then seasoned, tasted good. If you added some cabbage, it tasted like soba noodles.

This could definitely be sold as a product, but no one on the board agreed to produce it. They thought instant noodles sold well mainly because of the seasoning, with the noodles as a side. Who would buy food eaten from a plate?

But I felt we had to try. This way, production equipment could be used year-round.

In July 1963, 300,000 portions of fried noodles were released to the Japanese market. They sold out in just 3 days, and orders were overwhelming. From then on, instant noodles and fried noodles became Nissin's main products.

**4**

**Nissin Foods, Worth Billions of Dollars**

**What's the Secret Behind It?**

Many people ask me, what is the secret to Nissin's success?

**For decades, I have been persistent in doing what others don't do.** From knitwear to manufacturing, from salt-making to instant noodles, when everyone was making bread, I chose a risky path: developing instant noodles.

**Before 48, I failed three times. What's one more failure? At least I tried.**

During World War II, I ran various small businesses while studying economics at Ritsumeikan University, cooking for myself. If I had become a chef, I would have been top-notch.

After the war, seeing the lack of daily necessities, I arranged three fishing boats to catch sardines, dried them, and distributed them at cost to coastal residents. Later, I planned to sell salt, but without any salt-making technology, I used waste factory iron plates to channel seawater and make salt.

From selling cloth, fishing, making salt, to developing instant noodles, I always felt that **even if life falls into crisis, don't give up persistence and focus.**

Later, when instant noodles hit the market and the company kept expanding, we made many efforts to maintain the foundation.

**Continuous Innovation**

After bagged noodles and cup noodles, at 94, I developed "Space Ramen," instant noodles suitable for space consumption. This ramen was well received by Japan's younger generation.

Space Ramen

Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi, who has been to space three times, ate this ramen in space and praised it: "Space Ramen highly reproduces the taste of instant noodles you can only eat on Earth. I'm truly amazed!"

Besides categories, we also continuously develop new flavors, such as Demae Itcho, Curry Cup Noodle, UFO Yakisoba, and "Raoh" Miso Ramen. The variety is dazzling, with dozens of flavors. By noodle type, they can be divided into ramen, dry noodles, soba, udon, etc.

**Instant noodles won't become outdated; only rigid thinking becomes outdated.**

**Choosing to Give Up at the Right Moment**

After business success, giving up is harder than expanding. After the success of Cup Noodles, someone persuaded me to make cup rice. But after investing 3 billion yen with no improvement, I decisively withdrew, even though most of the company said cup rice had a market and we could wait.

**Sometimes, you need to know when to give up on false needs at the right moment.**

**Broad-mindedness: Bringing Instant Noodles to the World**

In 1961, I applied for a patent for Chicken Ramen. At that time, many people imitated our products and designs.

Three years later, I opened the patent. Rather than patent monopoly and corporate prosperity, I wanted to bring instant noodles to the world and let it grow into a big forest.

Because of this move, instant noodles have become a global industry. **The world consumes about 100 billion packs of instant noodles each year, equivalent to 14-15 packs per person per year globally.**

Seeing instant noodles loved by people around the world, I am gratified.

In 2007, Momofuku Ando passed away at the age of 96.

But the instant noodles he developed have influenced billions of people, or even more.

He innovated all his life. Even when life hit rock bottom, he remained persistent and focused. Losing both parents, being imprisoned twice, and going bankrupt three times are things ordinary people cannot bear, but he was reborn in adversity and became the father of instant noodles, influencing the world.

**Intelligence is a talent, but focus is a wealth.** I have seen many people who were strong in business but ultimately perished due to impatience and quick success.

**Victory always belongs to those who face life calmly. May you be one of them.**

Source: Entrepreneurial Think Tank (ID: cyzk88)


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