Buy Y=1 million worth of ramen, and the whole city's kids eat for free!

The search for the mystery donor known as "Uncle Million Yen" continues, while Osaka's lucky kids get to eat a whole load of noodles

By Robert Michael Poole 23 August, 2010

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A ramen store in Osaka has followed through on the wishes of a mystery customer who left the shop ¥1 million (US$11,685) and a message "Use this to let children have ramen" on July 27 this year.

Mensho Mifuku restaurant in Osaka's Suminoe ward had taken the money to the police and a search began for "Uncle Million Yen," who is described as being in his 30s and wearing glasses. Good. That narrows it down.

A bowl of ramen, yesterday.

Perhaps he saw our article about how Japan's kids were too soft to break a piddling three-minute massage record, and thought they needed beefing up. Whatever his reasons, the restaurant was able to give 1,540 dishes for free to local children, feeding 70 local junior high school students on the first day and over a thousand more pre-school children and elementary school students over five more days, according to the Mainichi newspaper.

The restaurant owner says the man came in at 3 p.m. on July 27 and after ordering, left a pile of notes along with the note. He then called the restaurant the next day to ask if they had started feeding kids. The restaurant owner then decided not to wait three months for the police to return the money -- standard procedure in Japan is for lost items to become the property of the person handing it in after three months -- and began serving in earnest.