Sakana AI says it received the Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications Award at the Japan Startup Awards 2026. According to the company, the recognition highlighted AI methods inspired by evolution and collective intelligence, reasoning with limited computing resources, and work on national security and labor shortages. At the ceremony, it says it described its defense command-and-control AI applications to Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. The company argued that combining small, efficient models could help address computing constraints without relying on massive infrastructure.