is a Japanese chain of

ramen shop A ramen shop is a restaurant that specializes in ramen dishes, the wheat-flour Japanese noodles in broth. In Japan, ramen shops are very common and popular, and are sometimes referred to as ramen-ya or ramen-ten . Some ramen shops operate in s ...

s founded by Takumi Yamada. Yamada opened the first Ramen Jiro in

Meguro, Tokyo is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. The English translation of its Japanese self-designation is Meguro City. The ward was founded on March 15, 1947. Meguro is predominantly residential in character, but is also home to light industry, corporate ...

in 1968. As of 2018, there are approximately 40 locations across Japan, over 30 of which are in the greater Tokyo area. Ramen Jiro is known for its large portions and its distinctly flavored broth, which enthusiasts call ''"Jirolian style."'' In 2009, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' included Ramen Jiro on its list of "The 50 best things to eat in the world".

History

Ramen Jiro was founded by Yamada in 1968 in the city of

Meguro is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. The English translation of its Japanese self-designation is Meguro City. The ward was founded on March 15, 1947. Meguro is predominantly residential in character, but is also home to light industry, corporate ...

, Tokyo, located near Tokyo Metropolitan University. According to Yamada, the restaurant initially served a thinner, lighter style of ramen. However, with the help of a neighboring Chinese restaurant, Yamada developed the new, distinctive flavor that became known as "Jirolian style." This style is characterized by a salty

shoyu Soy sauce (also called simply soy in American English and soya sauce in British English) is a liquid condiment of Chinese origin, traditionally made from a fermented paste of soybeans, roasted grain, brine, and ''Aspergillus oryzae'' or ''Asper ...

and

tonkotsu is a ramen dish that originated in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture on the Kyushu island of Japan, and it is a speciality dish in both Fukuoka and Kyushu. The soup broth is based on pork bones and other ingredients, which are typically boiled for se ...

soup base, with thick dense noodles and fatty pork chunks. During Tokyo's redevelopment in the early 1970s, the first Ramen Jiro shop moved to Mita, Tokyo. During the move, there was an error in painting the sign, using the characters instead of for Jirō, a common boy's name. Instead of correcting it, Yamada decided to change the characters of the name to . Ramen Jiro quickly gained popularity among Keio students due to its close proximity to

Keio University , mottoeng = The pen is mightier than the sword , type = Private research coeducational higher education institution , established = 1858 , founder = Yukichi Fukuzawa , endowmen ...

. In 1995, the shop in Mita was forced to relocate due to the city's redevelopment. As a result, students petitioned the university to move the restaurant to the Keio campus. The University administration declined the petition, but Yamada managed to move the shop to another location in Mita, where the flagship shop now stands. Additionally in 1995, Ramen Jiro opened its second shop in Meguro and the franchise has steadily expanded since.

Nutrition

One small-sized bowl of Jiro's ramen is estimated to contain a combined 300g of broth and noodles with an estimated 1600 kcal, whereas the average small-sized bowl at a typical Japanese ramen shop contains under 200g of broth and noodles and 600 kcal. Since Jiro's ramen is high in

carbohydrate In organic chemistry, a carbohydrate () is a biomolecule consisting of carbon (C), hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) atoms, usually with a hydrogen–oxygen atom ratio of 2:1 (as in water) and thus with the empirical formula (where ''m'' may or ma ...

s and fats and has little nutritional value, it is often described as a

junk food "Junk food" is a term used to describe food that is high in calories from sugar and/or fat, and possibly also sodium, but with little dietary fiber, protein, vitamins, minerals, or other important forms of nutritional value. It is also known as HF ...

by food critics.

Reception

Aficionados

Ramen Jiro has an avid fan base called ''Jirorian'' (). According to Noriko Arai, an economics professor at Sophia University, Ramen Jiro employs a "worshipper" type of marketing, relying on a small group of enthusiastic customers, typically students and salarymen. Some ''Jirorians'' make a pact to visit all 40 Jiro franchises and regard the first shop in Mita as "the sacred place."

Internet culture

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

user @habomaijiro, known for his unique daily reviews of Ramen Jiro, gathered more than 35,000 followers. When he stopped his updates due to "an unexpected accident," several prominent Japanese internet sites reported the incident. In 2018, data scientist Kenji Doi created software that was able to pinpoint at which of the 40 locations a bowl of ramen was made just by uploading a picture of the ramen. Utilizing the alpha version of

AutoML Automated machine learning (AutoML) is the process of automating the tasks of applying machine learning to real-world problems. AutoML potentially includes every stage from beginning with a raw dataset to building a machine learning model ready ...

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

, it had a 94.5% success rate when differentiating between the locations despite the bowls looking so similar. After its publication on Twitter, the software was featured by several tech publications, including Google and ''

The Verge ''The Verge'' is an American technology news website operated by Vox Media, publishing news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, consumer electronics news, and podcasts. The website launched on November 1, 2011, and uses Vox Media' ...

''.

References