Full Text] “Nanden Kanden” to be Revived! Hiroshi Kawahara, the “Tiger of the Ramen World

What is the recent situation of the famous president?

He was featured in Friday magazine quite a bit. I must have appeared about 20 times on various topics. (Laughs)”

The words “Nanden Kanden” on the chest of his T-shirt. President Hiroshi Kawahara (62), who had not appeared in front of the FRIDAY reporter for some time, had lost his dark skin and glistening eyes. He appeared to the FRIDAY reporter with his dark skin and glistening eyes gone.

He is now a very white man. Even when I go swimming in the ocean, my skin turns white right away. That’s why I always longed to have a tanned skin. I went to a tanning salon and found that my skin really darkened. I went there, and I really became black!

So I said to Kazuya Kato, 54, Hibari Misora’s son, who was my co-star on “Money Tiger,” “Let’s go to the sun salon together! We actually did it. It was a project for a TV program. Before we knew it, the employees ran away in the night (laughs).

His son, Kota (30), who is standing next to him, is a handsome, fair-skinned, and handsome man, which is probably what a president should look like. Kawahara and his son have decided to revive Nanden Kanden, the restaurant that created the tonkotsu ramen boom in the 1980s and 1990s.

My son said, ‘I don’t want to let it die out. I didn’t take over my father’s business. You can do whatever you want. I thought ‘Nanden Kanden’ would end after my generation,’ but I am grateful for that. But I’m still recuperating, so I thought I’d have my son help me.”

President Kawahara collapsed at home in July 2010. It was the same day that the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was killed by a bullet. On that day, only President Kawahara and Mitsutaka were at home.

He was basically in good health and disliked going to the hospital. My father used to catch a cold once every few years, but that day he was in a coma all the time, and when I tried to talk to him, he would just say, ‘Oh. His complexion should have been black, but it turned pale, and in a small voice he said, ‘Ambulance, please ……. The diagnosis at the hospital where he was brought in was infective endocarditis and aortic regurgitation. His heart valves were not working. I underwent a total of four surgeries since then, including the installation of an artificial valve,” said Mitsutaka.

The Phantom “Michael Ramen”.

After leaving the hospital, he appeared twice on variety shows, but his body was too weak and he gave up after that. Recently, he received offers to appear on “Nepu League” (Fuji Television) and other programs, but he turned them down because of his “physical condition. Mitsutaka had a wish that his father’s revival of “Nanden Kanden” would cheer him up.

Originally, a trademark is held by a company as a legal entity, but my father held the trademark for “Nanden Kanden” as an individual. He sometimes lent it to others, but he kept it with the hope that I would inherit it. I had my own day job, digital marketing consulting, and to be honest, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to follow in his footsteps. But when my father, who had collapsed, said to me in a quiet voice, “I want you to take over the ramen business,” I said, “I’ll do it! I was turned on.

I’ll take care of the taste. I’ll take care of the taste, and Mitsutaka has marketing skills, so I’ll combine them with his skills.

I’ve never helped my father in his restaurant, so I’m working on making the soup for ‘Nanden Kanden’ first. Fortunately, the recipe is still available, and with the help of former employees, we have been able to bring back the flavor of those days. Now we are looking for a partner to help us revive the actual restaurant. We are focusing on increasing exposure to impress people with the revival of “Nanden Kanden. As part of this effort, we are developing pop-up stores that serve ramen at super public baths and izakayas (Japanese-style pubs),” said Mitsutaka.

Ramen making began while we were interviewing him. Nanden Kanden,” a nostalgic laver printed with the words “Nanden Kanden,” also made an appearance.

I came up with this idea with my father, who runs a laver shop. We can even print out QR codes. If you go to Disneyland, they sell seaweed with Mickey Mouse printed on it.

I am from Fukuoka, and my great uncle is the founder of the cod roe shop Fukuya. When I was in elementary school, my mother told me to give mentaiko to my homeroom teacher. I brought it to her and she said, “What’s this? I answered, “It’s cod roe,” and she said, “That’s a strange name. When I came home and told my mother about it, she told me, “This is a product that we only have at home, and my great-uncle named it mentaiko and has been working hard to make it a Hakata specialty.

It is now a food that everyone knows. My great-uncle told me, “Hiroshi!　Whatever comes to mind, you should be the first to do it! He used to say to me, “Whenever you have an idea, you should be the first to try it! That’s how I came to love new and interesting things. I also did the “Waiting Theatre. We built a stage in front of the line of customers and invited comedians to perform there (laughs).

There was even a plan to have world-famous singer Michael Jackson descend on “Nanden Kanden.

The CBS/Sony staff saw the printed nori and liked it so much that they decided to make “Michael Ramen” with Michael Jackson’s nori in it and hold a press conference at “Nanden Kanden. ‘ It didn’t happen, though, because he had a problem right before he came to Japan.”

President Kawahara set up the “Waiting Theatre” at the first “Nanden Kanden” restaurant along the Kannana Loop. It became a social phenomenon, with more than 1,000 people standing in line every night.

Toward a Complete Revival

At the time, tonkotsu ramen was still a rarity. The president of Ippudo said in a lecture, “I have one regret. I heard that the president of Ippudo said in a lecture, “I have only one regret: It was the president of Nanden Kanden, not me, who made tonkotsu ramen a boom” (laughs). It was good timing, wasn’t it? If it were now, I don’t think I would have opened a ramen restaurant. There are so many different kinds of ramen now, and it has become a part of Japan’s food culture.

While saying this, he immediately advised Mitsutaka, who was making ramen next to him, “Not enough green onions,” he said. While helping him prepare the ramen, he continued, “You should also have kikurage (kikurage).

The best thing is that my son can recreate the taste of our heyday. My body is getting better little by little, so when the restaurant opens, I’ll be in the kitchen as well. When I am able to move, I will also appear in a variety show. I have always been a comedian. I was an apprentice of W Kenji.

President Kawahara, who loves new and interesting things, had some ideas for new products, but “First of all, I had to revive the Hakata Tonkotsu Ramen business. He told the reporter, “First of all, we need to revive the Hakata tonkotsu ramen business, not expand half-heartedly.

In the past, I wanted to do udon as well. It’s such a specialty in Fukuoka that there is a monument to the birthplace of udon. But now that ‘Suke-san Udon,’ one of the three major udon restaurants in Fukuoka, has moved into the Tokyo area, I’m not sure I want to do it anymore. West” and “Maki no Udon” are also popular, and “West” has a distant relative who is also involved, and they collaborated with my great uncle’s “Fukuya.

There used to be a concept of a restaurant specializing in tonkotsu chanpon, Chinese and ochazuke. ″Naikan-den″ means anything and everything, you know. But I won’t cheat anymore. My son, who was concerned about my health, stood up for me, saying, “I don’t want my father’s taste to die out. I can’t let that thought go to waste. First of all, I have to make sure that our signature tonkotsu ramen is perfect. That is my mission.

The son’s passion ignited his father’s passion for ramen.

Interview supported by: Nanden Kanden

From the May 29, 2026 issue of FRIDAY