NA/EU are much closer than the OP claims.

By opening a data center in NA, SE cut EU players' ping times by more than half. To NA they currently average 109ms (Paris, Frankfurt). High=138 (Athens), low=75 (Manchester). To Japan, the average is 281ms. High=317, low=244.

Yoshi-P's message says that setting up this first remote data center is expected to increase the community, and that "it may be eventually possible to establish more data centers."