Sakana's Namazu, a Japanese-tuned Kimi K2.6, lands on OpenRouter
The OpenAI-compatible endpoint runs $0.95/$4 per million with built-in web search and code execution — and it's blocked in the EU, UK and Switzerland.
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One base_url swap, no SDK migration
Namazu speaks the OpenAI API, so you point an existing client or coding harness at Sakana's endpoint, set a key, and go — no rewrite. Under the hood it's Moonshot's open Kimi K2.6, retuned in-house on proprietary data for Japanese language and business context.
$0.95 in, $4 out, tools billed on top
Input is $0.95 per million tokens ($0.15 cached) and output $4.00 per million. The built-in web search adds $7 per 1,000 calls and code execution runs $0.12 per hour — cheap versus frontier US models if your traffic is Japanese-heavy.
Blocked in the EU, UK and Switzerland
Namazu isn't served to the EU/EEA, the UK, or Switzerland, so it's a non-starter if you or your users sit there. Plan a fallback model or route around the geo-block before you build on it.
Now routable through OpenRouter
Both sakana/namazu and sakana/sakana-namazu showed up on OpenRouter today, so you can reach the model from an existing multi-model setup instead of wiring a new provider by hand.
Tuned for Japan, and it shows on Japanese evals
Sakana reports sizable Japanese-context gains from its tuning — FairPoliticsQA jumps from 34.10% to 56.30% — though the numbers are self-published without disclosed methodology. If you ship to Japanese users, that's the reason to try it.