Each morning at 8 o'clock, millions of homemakers across the country tune into a 15-minute-long segment of a serialized morning drama on NHK. The current story, titled "Manpuku," relates the saga of the man who invented instant noodles and his devoted wife, played by Hiroki Hasegawa and Sakura Ando, respectively.
The program is meant to dramatize the life story of Taiwan-born Momofuku Ando (1910-2007) and his wife, Masako.
Ando, founder of Nissin Ramen, is credited, in 1958, with launching Chikin Ramen, the forerunner of the instant noodles we know today, of which tens of billions of servings are consumed annually throughout the world.