Tech named after common Japanese names.

3 early signals and news. Every Monday. Episode 465.

Wasabi — a cloud storage alternative company.

Wasabi Technologies is a Boston-based cloud storage company that offers low-cost, high-performance object storage, marketed as “hot cloud storage”. Its service is positioned as an alternative to traditional hyperscalers, emphasising simple pricing without regress or API request fees, while remaining compatible with the Amazon S3 API. A recent funding in Series E of $70m adding to $620m. Opinion — They present Wasabi Fire, a new all-NVMe storage designed for demanding high-throughput, low-latency workloads — of course linked to AI. But argument number 1 is price, always in comparasion with S3 (AWS storage service). A good positioning.

But why Wasabi?

Dojo — a hall for dev training.

Dojo refers to a specialised hall, studio or dedicated space for training in Japanese martial arts or for meditation. In tech, “dojo” is used metaphorically for an intensive, hands‑on learning space where teams practice new skills (often agile, DevOps or cloud) on real or realistic work. It borrows from the Japanese meaning “place of the way” — so a DevOps dojo or agile dojo is a safe environment to experiment, pair with coaches, and iterate without risking production systems. Opinion — Companies use dojos to accelerate upskilling, close skills gaps, and embed modern engineering practices directly into product teams. For ex. Microsoft, they run a global DevOps Dojo program with white, orange, and green belts focused on SRE.

What a nice metaphor.

Sakana — a fish and a prominent AI, now with Google.

Sakana AI is a prominent Japanese startu p developing LLMs tailored for Japan. Founded in 2023 in Tokyo by former Google/DeepMind researchers including CEO David Ha. It focuses on reasoning models, self‑improving agents, and scientific AI like “AI Scientist,” with strong emphasis on Japanese language/culture. Opinion — We asked Google Gemeni: “Sakana translates to “fish”. It is the general term for fish as a food, a creature in the water, or a pet. The term originates from sake (alcohol) and na (side dish), historically referring to food served with sake”. Google? Just invested an udisclosed amount in this Fish AI.

The ideogramme (魚) looks like a fish.