I cannot log into League of Legends Japan unless I use a VPN?

So I have plans to transfer this account over to JP server so I can have a more stable and better experience playing the game. I have 271ms flat when I play on NA but I have created a test account to play on JP today and my ping is 100-103ms flat which is far superior compared to NA.

I have been playing on NA for years and Im sick of this high ping. But one thing I noticed is that I cannot log into LoL JP without using a VPN. Is there a region lock on that server? If i were to transfer this, which is my main account, I would have to constantly be on VPN just to log in which is not great because turning on and off VPN within a short period of time will (and has already) damaged my network card (specifically my ethernet cable detection).

Please help.