According to Chai, a fateful drive down a windy highway that year brought him to the idea. While driving, he had passed the corpse of a stray dog laying along the road. It wasn’t the first stray he saw that year, but the conditions of that stray’s death struck him with overwhelming clarity.

“Somehow, relating to the stray dog ignited a sense of identity in me. I, too, had to fend for myself and learn never to rely on others,” – Kenji Chai, Creator of Chaigo

Being from a turbulent family, Chai felt he never truly belonged anywhere, just like a stray. Unlike the stray however, he believed he could decide the course of his life through hard work. Inspired by the life of strays, the Chaigo alias was finally given life.