Throughout my time leading NISSIN FOOD PRODUCTS, I have kept asking myself how we can achieve discontinuous growth across the entire NISSIN FOODS Group.

The answer I reached is to relentlessly execute one simple fundamental: multiply branding and marketing by innovation. Whenever a company truly leaps forward, that leap is always accompanied by the birth of a new normal. I believe the driving force behind creating such a new normal lies in multiplying these two elements together.

When I became President of NISSIN FOOD PRODUCTS in 2015, I established two slogans. The first, aimed at maximizing the value we have today, was the Century Brand Company concept for deepening our existing businesses. The second, aimed at creating value that does not yet exist, was Beyond Instant Foods for exploring new businesses. In a shrinking domestic market, sustainable growth is not something the Instant Noodles Business can deliver on its own. That is exactly why we thoroughly polish our existing businesses while creating, with our own hands, the next businesses that lie beyond a straight-line extension. That is the resolve I poured into these words.

The year 2026 marks major milestones: the 55th anniversary of CUP NOODLE and the 50th anniversaries of NISSIN NO DONBEI and NISSIN YAKISOBA U.F.O. The branding and marketing × innovation we have perfected in the domestic market is far more than a mere technique; it is management itself, forged through repeated trial and error. At the foundation lie the values we have cherished since our founding: Creative, Unique, Happy, and Global. Generating original value through new ideas, delivering joy to people, and spreading it around the world—this philosophy is our starting point.

For nearly 70 years since we created the world’s first CHICKEN RAMEN, we have devoted ourselves to the Instant Noodles Business. Throughout, we have consistently pursued products that redefine what a category can be. CUP NOODLES, eaten in more than 100 countries, is not merely an instant noodle; it is a brand that gives shape to the very experience of life with CUP NOODLES. We create one-of-a-kind tastes and worldviews, turning the combination into a memorable brand. Our brand-building always starts with this approach.

The same is true of NISSIN CURRY MESHI. When it launched, many asked whether a ramen company could really make curry. Yet by proposing the new concept of snack-style curry, we pioneered the cup-rice market. As a result, the NISSIN CURRY MESHI series has grown into a brand worth 20.0 billion yen and is still expanding. Shift the normal just slightly—but never retreat into a niche. Aim squarely for the center of the mass market from the very start. I believe this design philosophy determines the vector of a brand’s growth.

What expands that value all at once is bold and efficient communication. In Japan’s consumer-goods market, the brand that comes to mind first at the store shelf tends to be the one that is chosen by the consumer. We have consistently pursued communication that is highly memorable and makes people want to buy.

Despite a relatively small media spend, our commercials have earned high brand recognition, winning the CM Research Institute’s BRAND OF THE YEAR for two consecutive years in 2024 and 2025. Behind the promotions that appear too edgy at first glance lies a meticulous design that deliberately incorporates affinity with the brand’s worldview, enough impact to avoid being buried among other commercials, and gimmicks that spark the urge to buy and try. Rather than overpowering the market through sheer ad spend, our strength is the breakout power to stay memorable with minimal effort.

This winning formula is beginning to be shared with our domestic Group companies, and promising new brands are starting to grow. NISSIN YORK’s PILKUL MIRACLE CARE and KOIKE-YA’s PRIDE POTATO, which have grown to a scale of several billion yen, are representative examples. The question now is how to implement this winning formula on a global scale. We are entering the next phase of this challenge.

Planned rollout across three regions: the United States, Brazil, and Europe

In recent years, the global business environment has grown increasingly uncertain, with geopolitical risks, extreme weather, and currency volatility. In the instant noodles market as well, the emergence of new players is beginning to change the very structure of the market. Globally, too, sustainable growth is hard to achieve by doing things the same way as before. That is why I believe that leveraging overseas the branding and marketing × innovation we perfected at home will be the driver of our next stage of growth.

In Brazil and Europe, measures based on the winning formula cultivated in Japan are starting to bear fruit. In Brazil, our brand image is so well established that whenever we run a promotion, people naturally start talking, joking that Nissin is at it again with another crazy commercial. Through initiatives, such as the viral spread of a commercial that self-parodies Japan’s CHICKEN RAMEN, Nissin is recognized as a company that is strong in marketing. In Europe, our Japanese-style yakisoba products, marketed under the Soba brand, are beginning to take hold as one of the main categories on the shelf. With the rising popularity of Japanese cuisine as a tailwind, products that recreate authentic Japanese flavors are winning support even in the premium price range.

What matters is not engaging in simple price competition with makers from other countries. What matters is capturing the tailwind of an expanding Asian food market while competing with a Japanese style that only we can offer. The concept that accelerates this global expansion is The BOLD SIDE of JAPAN. Overseas, Japan is often described as refined and delicate. But we go beyond delicate, adding other facets of Japan’s appeal—authentic, bold, and rich—to present a worldview that only NISSIN can deliver. By combining Japanese-style flavors in the instant noodle format with promotions built on Japan's globally popular pop culture, we will drive straight into the core of the mass market. This is the backbone of our global strategy going forward. We plan to roll out The BOLD SIDE of JAPAN across three regions in 2026: the United States, Brazil, and Europe.

Separately from the Instant Noodles Business, we are working to build another axis of growth: the Optimized Nutri-Dense Meals business that we have pursued under Beyond Instant Foods.

Society has changed dramatically since our founding in 1958. We have moved from an era of hunger and malnutrition to an era of overabundance and health challenges. Even as society has grown affluent enough that food loss has become a social issue, new challenges have emerged. These challenges include excess calorie intake, hidden malnutrition, and frailty. If the times have changed this much, then perhaps the very role of a food manufacturer should evolve as well. Our own answer to that question is Optimized Nutri-Dense Meals.

What I aim for in this domain is a reframing of food and health. There is a common perception in society that instant foods are unhealthy, as well as a widely held belief that staying healthy requires self-denial. By launching instant foods that offer new value, we want to overturn those perceptions. We want to create a world in which people can naturally become healthier without greatly changing their lifestyles, all while honoring their appetite. And ultimately, we are aiming for a world in which people say that the healthiest meal on earth is CUP NOODLES.

The concept itself—obtaining needed nutrients in a single meal—is simple. Yet there is a reason this concept had never been achieved: vitamins and minerals carry strong bitterness and harshness, and adding these compounds to an ordinary meal spoils the taste. Forcing people to endure something merely because it is good for them never lasts. Against this challenge, we pursued a complete balance between 33 nutrients and great taste in KANZEN MEAL.

Drawing on the many food technologies we cultivated while continually refining instant noodles—calorie-reduction technology, salt-reduction technology, fat-reduction technology, taste-reproduction technology, advanced masking, and decay simulation—we combined and applied them to achieve sophisticated nutritional design. We design on the very premise that nutrients change over time, and still make the product viable in the end. I am convinced that, at present, ours is the only company in the world able to reconcile nutrition and taste at this level. This Optimized Nutri-Dense Technology can be extended not only to noodles but to a wide range of categories, including rice, bread, and prepared foods. We are expanding not a single product, but the possibilities of food itself.

As a business, too, we are beginning to feel real traction. KANZEN MEAL sales exceeded 10.0 billion yen (converted to market prices) in FY 3/2026, and cumulative domestic servings sold reached 74 million as of the end of July 2026. Notably, sales at mass retailers have begun to surpass those at convenience stores. Products with a new concept are first embraced by early adopters and then permeate the daily lives of the majority. Moving beyond the convenience-store-centered trial phase, the shift to mass-retail sales—which signals repeat purchasing—is, I believe, proof that KANZEN MEAL is transitioning from a talked-about product to an everyday food. KANZEN MEAL is now steadily moving up from Phase 1 of market penetration to Phase 2 of scale expansion.

We are also gaining solid feedback on the overseas expansion we began in FY 3/2026. In the United States, the high nutrient density of KANZEN MEAL drew attention from a fresh perspective, with media coverage featuring the series as a meal for GLP-1* users. In Europe as well, KANZEN MEAL is winning support as a product with a high nutrition score, despite having a premium price. Overseas buyers have responded even more enthusiastically than those at home, and I see great potential in this market.

At the same time, overseas markets present challenges different from Japan, including production, logistics, and sales networks. Rather than clinging needlessly to a do-it-all-ourselves approach, we will use every option available—including partnerships and M&A—to find the optimal solution with a strong sense of speed.

Our aim is to achieve profitability in Japan first, targeting around FY 3/2029, and then to pursue profitability business by business while raising the ratio of investment overseas. We will make every necessary investment. We will grow the Optimized Nutri-Dense Meals business into a new pillar of business on par with the Instant Noodles Business.

What we are ultimately aiming for is a world in which the paradox of being junk yet healthy becomes the norm—a world where existing brands and Optimized Nutri-Dense Meals do not stand in opposition, but merge across boundaries; a world where consumers can eat what they like, when they like, as much as they like, and still be fine. Just as our founder created a new food culture in instant noodles, we will go on to create the next food culture.

*GLP-1 (Glucagon-Like Peptide-1): a gastrointestinal hormone involved in appetite suppression and blood-sugar control.

Optimized Nutri-Dense Technology

Indispensable to realizing the strategy I have described so far are our people and our organization.

I do not believe creativity refers only to design or commercials. Product development, promotion, business design, and even organizational design are all creative. Our strength arises when these elements are not left as isolated optimizations, but are linked organically.

One embodiment of this is the establishment of the new Global Strategy Division.

This organization serves as the core for deploying the marketing we have perfected in Japan across the Group and to the world. We positioned the division within the Corporate Planning Platform so that it can operate as one with our management strategy, corporate management, and M&A functions. By not severing strategy formulation from execution, we are raising the speed of both decision-making and implementation.

Drawing up a strategy alone is meaningless. The real question is how to build the people and organization that can see the strategy through. I will continue to grapple with that question going forward.

I want to make the NISSIN FOODS Group an organization that endures for 300 years. Of course, the number itself has no inherent meaning; it is symbolic. But in an era of rapid change, maintaining the status quo is nothing but regression, and such companies will inevitably decay.

We must not cling to past successes. We have to keep updating ourselves through repeated cycles of creation and destruction. We should not fear change, but rather enjoy it. Better yet, we can generate change ourselves.

That is the DNA of the NISSIN FOODS Group and the essence of the NISSIN spirit.

The innovations that moved history share something in common.

Nothing heavier than air can fly.
The invention of the airplane shattered that assumption.
Infectious diseases cannot be cured.
Penicillin shattered that one.
Amplifying an electrical signal requires physical space.
The transistor shattered that assumption.
Information can travel only one way.
Now we have the internet.

AI is beginning to rewrite even the assumption that only humans can create.

Innovation does not mean technological breakthroughs alone. Its essence, I believe, lies in the power to rewrite premises. Branding and marketing are what have the power to root those rewritten premises in people’s daily lives and elevate them into a new normal.

No matter how much the times change, people will never stop eating. That is why we want to rewrite the assumptions that remain unchanged in the world of food, and expand the possibilities of food even further.

What we envision is not a future of ramen alone, but the future of food. We will go on creating new value and new food cultures for the world.