Thursday, June 2 2005 15:29 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Tokyo: Momofuku Ando, the man credited with inventing instant noodles, will bow out of the business frontline at age 95 after seeing his cups of quick, hot and inexpensive meals sweep the world.

The entrepreneur who entered the food business when Japan was hungry after World War II lived to watch his invention stocked on the shelves of omnipresent convenience stores and become an international favourite for people on the go.

Ando, who remains in excellent health and comes to the office every day, will resign as chairman and representative director at Nissin Food Products Co Ltd on June 29 at his own request, said the company in the western city of Osaka.

The business tycoon, born in 1910, founded the predecessor to Nissin Food Products in 1948 and invented the world's first instant noodle, Chicken Ramen noodles sold in bags, in 1958.

He launched the cupped version in 1971. As "Cup Noodles" have swept the world and been widely replicated, the Nissin group now boasts annual sales exceeding 300 billion yen ($ 2.7 billion).

"I am 95 years old. I have lived for nearly a century," Ando said in a statement on his resignation, noting he sometimes "bothered other people" or got "tossed about by the waves of the time" before and after World War II.