Authentic ramen: Contradictions and conflict in everyday consumer practice in Japan

Ramen is a highly popular dish in Japan and is deeply embedded in everyday practices. Understanding contemporary Japanese attitudes towards ramen offers a valuable perspective for examining the complex relationship between food culture and authenticity. While previous studies have demonstrated that authenticity is socially constructed, they have often emphasised its association with positive characteristics and paid limited attention to the reinterpretation of meanings and everyday practices. This study explores consumers’ engagement with ramen, revealing that contradictions and negative characteristics, especially those concerning health, are also integral to the authenticity enacted through everyday practices. Based on qualitative interviews with 31 Japanese consumers, the study identifies key patterns in perceptions and practices related to ramen consumed in restaurants, when cooked at home and eaten as cup noodles. Crucially, restaurant ramen is not more authentic while home-cooked ramen and cup noodles are merely convenient but inauthentic alternatives. Authenticity, this study contends, is not a pursuit of purity but an ongoing process constituted through everyday practices, one that accommodates contradiction, ambiguity, and the complexity of consumer life.