It was Akihabara, Tokyo, where the light to a new trend was lit. Now Oden-can can be bought practically anywhere in Japan.
Oden is a traditional Japanese dish, containing konnyaku, Japanese white radish, eggs and dumplings boiled in a soy-sauce-based broth - soy sauce being one ingredient  you'll find in every Japanese kitchen throughout the land! Oden is so popular among the Japanese that February 22nd has been named “Oden Day”.

This product has become a real hit thanks to the popularity of the dish, and the convenience of having it available in a can. It’s cheap (only 250~300yen), practical and doesn’t forget the jokes(I'm not sure what this means.). Oden-can was quickly picked up by the media and featured on many TV programmes. It soon became a popular souvenir for people visiting Tokyo from different parts of Japan and from abroad. Now Akihabara has become one of the new specialties in Tokyo.(I'm not sure about the meaning of this sentence. How about: “Some people even traveled to Akihabara not in search of electronics, for which this area is famed, but to buy Oden-can!”)

Another food favoured by the Japanese is ramen. Here, we will introduce the Ramen-can as well.

Ramen is a tasty noodle dish that comes in several different varieties. It's said that there's not a single town in Japan without a ramen restaurant, a clear testament to its popularity.

Having been influenced by Oden-can, several other companies are now manufacturing their own types of tinned food. The shops in Akihabara now display these new kinds of tinned food as well. Among them, the Sapporo Ramen-can is rapidly increasing its share of the market, following in the steps of the original Oden-can.
 
You might be surprised to learn that Ramen-can came about under rather unusual conditions. On October 23rd, 2004, a big earthquake occurred in Niigata prefecture, northwest Japan. Many people suffered as a result of the devastating earthquake. Many people lost there homes and provisions were in short supply. After watching news of the quake on television, the owner of Mennya Musashi, a ramen restaurant in Tokyo, took his staff to Niigata and offered his ramen to the people there. From this experience, ramen as an emergency provision was considered (Can we say “...was considered by the government”?).

The difference between instant noodles and Ramen-can is that if you open Ramen-can, the ready-made ramen within can be eaten any time. Konnyaku is used instead of Chinese noodles, as it's the core of ramen and if it's put in soup for a long time it doesn’t taste good.(I'm not sure that this sentence is correct. It seems to mean Ramen-can doesn't taste good? Please review this sentence and let me know.) Great efforts were made to make it as tasty as possible, showing just how far each ramen producer goes in order to produce top quality ramen.

Both Oden-can and Ramen-can can be bought online. It surely won’t be too long before Japanese tinned food begins to make inroads into the world market.