Raumen, which has won the status of the national food in Japan today, actually has its roots in China. After 1871, when the Japan-China Amity Treaty was concluded, many people moved from mainland China for greener pastures and introduced raumen to Japan.There were many Chinese restaurants in the foreign concessions in Yokohama, Kobe, or Nagasaki targeted at the Chinese people who savored their homeland's cuisine. At that time, as most Chinese came from the Provinces of Guangdong and Fujian, the Chinese restaurants in Japan aminly served food native to those areas.
Among these dishes was raumen. Nationally, the originl Chinese taste was prevalent in the raumen back then.
Around 1900, a stallholder who is believed to be the pioneer of modern Japanese raumen started selling raumen in Yokohama's Chinatown. The raumen was n
ot the raumen we know today. It gradually changed from Chinese noodles to Japanese style over a long period of time due to three major innovations: adding soy sauce to the salt flavored soup, curling the noodles which had been straight, and creating Japanese broths made from various boiled dried fish. Raumen contains a lot of fat and warms the body. It was precious nourishment during the post-war era when the nation suffered from poverty. Raumen became especially popular with the introduction of instant raumen in 1958. Since then raumen has prevailed as a convenient yet
affordable homemade dish.