Synopsis

Momofuku Ando is the founder of Nissin Food Products Co. Ltd., a Japanese food product firm. Cup noodles, instant ramen, and instant noodles were his inventions, and they were known as the cheapest and most convenient foods.

The Japanese regarded Ando as a brilliant inventor for supplying food to Japan’s starving people during a period when the country had been devastated.

Early childhood development and education

Momofuku Ando was born in the Taiwanese city of Kagi-Cho on March 5, 1910. (presently known as Chiayi). His parents nurtured him and gave him the name Go Pek-Hok as a birth name.

Ando lived with his grandparents after his parents died and were reared in Tainan, Taiwan, where his grandparents managed a textile store.

Ando moved to Osaka, Japan, in 1933 to study economics at Ritsumeikan University. He founded a clothes firm at the time.

Career

Ando launched his own textile business and traveled to Osaka, Japan, at the age of twenty-two, after being inspired by his grandparents, who were the owners of a modest business store, a textiles store. Ando obtained a Japanese citizen shortly after that and enrolled at Kyoto’s Ritsumeikan University.

Ando devised a flash-frying technology and sold the first packet of instant noodles on August 25, 1958, when he was 48 years old, after considerable trial.

He became a Japanese citizen after the Second World War. He adopts the Japanese surname Momofuku and adds the Japanese surname Ando to his original Chinese name Go Pek-Hok.

Ando’s clothes company went bankrupt, so he started a modest family-owned salt manufacturing business in Ikeda, Osaka. This company was the progenitor of today’s corporation.

Ando introduced the first cup noodle product, which was packaged in a weatherproof polystyrene container, on September 18, 1971. It was an instant hit, and this brilliant move turned his company into a thriving enterprise overnight.

Ando was honored with the ‘Distinguished Service Award’ in 1992 for his contributions to Japan’s science and technology fields. In 2002, the Japanese government bestowed upon him the ‘Order of the Rising Sun, Second Class, with Gold and Silver Stars.’

In 2005, astronauts on the space shuttle ‘Discovery’ ate instant noodles prepared in special canisters designed by him.

In 2007, a packet of chicken ramen cost 60 yen in Japan, which was about a third of the price of a bowl of inexpensive noodles in any Japanese restaurant.

Estimated Net Worth

Ando, a well-known Japanese entrepreneur, was one of the pioneers of instant noodles. He earned an incredible fortune before dying in 2007 at the age of 96. His overall net worth was estimated to be around $100 million at the time.

His company, Nissin Food Products Co. Ltd, had sales of $3.3 billion and a net income of $183 million in March 2011. In 2011, the company employed 7505 workers.

Ando garnered numerous awards in both Japan and the United States throughout his lifetime. He was a unique individual.

Momofuku Ando is married to Masako and they have two sons and a daughter. There is no more information about his family, including his wife and children.

In 2002, the Japanese government recognized Ando with a number of awards, including the Gold and Silver Star, Second Class, The Order of the Rising Sun.

Ando died of heart failure on January 5, 2007, at the age of 96, in Ikeda, Osaka, leaving behind his wife Masako, a daughter, and two sons.

Ando said that playing golf and eating Chicken Ramen virtually every day was the secret to his long life. He was also claimed to have survived on instant ramen till his death.