Comparison
Models processed in Japan: FastMetal vs overseas hosting
With an overseas API, your prompts are processed on servers abroad. For most uses that is fine, but in government, finance, and healthcare, domestic processing can be a hard requirement.
FastMetal offers models whose processing stays inside Japan. Claude Sonnet and Claude Haiku run on geography-pinned profiles in a domestic region, and LLM-jp, the Japan-served editions of Gemma, Qwen, and Kimi, and gpt-oss-120b run on our own infrastructure in Japan. Other catalog models are relayed to overseas providers, so choose the covered models when domestic processing matters.
At a glance
| Aspect | FastMetal | Overseas-hosted APIs |
|---|---|---|
| Billing and invoices | Prepaid in JPY. Qualified invoices | Mostly billed in USD |
| API compatibility | OpenAI- and Anthropic-compatible. Same API for the Japan-processed models | Varies by provider |
| Models and providers | Japan-processed: Claude Sonnet/Haiku, LLM-jp, Japan-served Gemma, Qwen, and Kimi, gpt-oss-120b | The widest choice, including frontier models |
| Operational burden | Switching to domestic processing is a model-name change | Building it yourself means cloud contracts and infrastructure work |
| Language and support | Japanese UI, docs, and support | Primarily English |
| Data flow | For covered models, prompts and inference stay in Japan | Processed on servers abroad |
When overseas hosting is fine
- You have no domestic-processing requirement and want the newest frontier models above all.
- You want the widest possible model choice. Domestic processing covers part of the catalog.
- Your organization has already settled the approvals and contracts for overseas processing.
When FastMetal fits
- Procurement requirements or internal policy demand that prompts and outputs be processed in Japan.
- You want Claude-class models with domestic processing. Geography-pinned profiles keep inference inside the country.
- You would rather simplify the cross-border story for personal data by not sending it abroad in the first place.
Domestic processing is per model. Models beyond the ones above are relayed to overseas providers. For compliance with specific laws and industry guidelines, confirm with your own legal and compliance teams.
This comparison reflects August 2026.
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