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The story
A thread on 5ch’s “Nandemo Jikkyo” (live-everything) board asking “Which ramen chain do you think is the most famous in Japan?” quickly filled with names like Tenkaippin, Ichiran, Ippudo, Jiro, Mouko Tanmen Nakamoto, and Hidakaya. As the discussion grew, it became clear posters couldn’t agree on what “famous” even meant — whether it should be measured by how many people have actually eaten there, or by store count and convenience-store exposure. Several posters also pointed out that Tokyo-area chains like Hidakaya, Kurumaya, and Ramen Shop are barely known outside the greater Kanto region.
What people said
That name "Tenkaippin" ("number one under heaven") has a lot of punch to it too.
So it's gotta be Ichiran or Ippudo as most famous.
It's been sitting on 7-Eleven shelves forever.
Wait, Ringer Hut is a ramen chain?
I thought it was a pizza place.
So the shop is actually built lower than street level?
Surely by now they've raised all the wiring and equipment up off the ground.
Even counting the infamy, literally everyone knows it.
Nah, not really — outside Kanto its name recognition probably drops off a lot.
Kurumaya only exists in and around Kanto.
Who cares about the boonies outside Kanto anyway lol
Ramen Shop doesn't exist in western Japan.
Then what would it be?
Being spread across a wide area gives you more name recognition than being clustered in one spot, right?
How do you not get that lol
Ramen Shop, Yamaokaya, and Kurumaya are even less known than that.
Didn't know that — if so the Nakamoto theory is seriously plausible.
You can eat it anywhere there's a 7-Eleven.
Nakamoto has even fewer actual stores.
If you're counting by 7-Eleven numbers the figures get insane.
It's been a mega long-seller too.
Is Nakamoto the only one at 7-Eleven?
There's instant noodles from other ramen shops too, plus ready-to-eat and microwave noodle products, no?
If you count the "inspired-by" copycat shops it seems like a lot of people know it, but limited to the actual direct-lineage shops, I feel like plenty of people don't.
Even if you say "the Mita flagship shop," people out in the provinces have no idea where Mita even is.
There's Sumire and others, but Nakamoto is the runaway bestseller among them.
Every college kid and teenager out there is eating Mouko Tanmen.
That's beside the point.
This is about whether it's stocked in stores or not.
You're saying if it's stocked, that counts as name recognition, right?
So does everyone actually know where the Nakamoto shops even are?
If all they know is the 7-Eleven version, doesn't that mean they don't actually know the restaurant?
There's a whole write-up about the shop printed on the inside of the lid.
Have you never actually eaten it?
The reason I can say that is because even in Tohoku, where there are no actual shops, everyone who eats Mouko Tanmen knows about Nakamoto.
Thinking about it normally, it's gotta be either Hidakaya or Kourakuen.
Only people from Kanto even know Hidakaya.
Source: me, born in Tohoku.
Outside Kanto, Hidakaya only has a single location, in Niigata — it's basically a local chain.
Even the top chains are missing from somewhere.
That's a tall order — even 7-Eleven, a convenience store, only made it into Okinawa a few years ago.
I went once back when they had a shop in Kameido and never went back.
It was pretty bad.
Couldn't taste any umami at all.
Well, that cup noodle sells like crazy.
The package even has the shop owner's face on it, with a write-up about the shop on the lid — people from outside Kanto have been known to swing by the actual restaurant while traveling.
So what?
By that logic Nissin Foods would be the overwhelmingly more recognized name.
That's a separate thing from the ramen shop itself being recognized.
It's precisely because the ramen shop itself is recognized that it drives tourism — all my friends back home say they want to try Nakamoto if they ever go to Tokyo.
Background and Key Points of This Debate
Japan’s ramen chains tend to be regionally concentrated, which throws off any simple measure of “fame.” Hidakaya’s stores are almost entirely within the Kanto region, and Kourakuen and the frequently-cited Ramen Shop are similarly concentrated in eastern Japan. Tenkaippin, by contrast, originated in the Kansai region, while in Kyushu, Ichiran and Ippudo have a much stronger presence — meaning the “famous shop” people picture depends heavily on where they live. Mouko Tanmen Nakamoto, despite having relatively few physical locations, sits on convenience store shelves nationwide as a 7-Eleven cup noodle, giving it a distinctive kind of fame where people “know the name even if they’ve never eaten there.” Ramen Jiro is a similar case — its shops are confined to a handful of cities, but online buzz has made its name known nationwide. What split opinion in the thread really came down to a mismatch in definitions: whether “famous” should be measured by how many people have actually eaten at the shop, or by how many people simply recognize the name. That disagreement never got resolved, and it’s worth keeping in mind when reading the debate.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo board) thread “Which ramen chain do you think is the most famous in Japan?“
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