I could no longer select the Japan server, and confirmed that it had been changed to the Hong Kong server.
The ping also doubled.
This is a very disappointing policy.

It is what it is

Hi, I confirm that we had to stop using the Japan server. It was an i3d server that was very expensive to run.

We did write to you on 16th October, informing you in advance of the change and suggesting you could try the Hong Kong server.

To explain the decision:

When we released the mods system, we started the Japan server (along with the USA server) hoping that it would be good for a lot of users from China, Japan, Korea and a lot more of Asia and even Oceania. But the ping was too low in Australia and China (and South America too) so we had to open some more, cheaper servers, including Sydney and Hong Kong (and Brazil).

The Japan server has been used very little from the outset and in recent times there were only two hosts running on it, and even they were not used much. It was clear we could not continue with that dedicated server so that's why we closed it down at the end of October.

What ping do you get when you are connected to the Hong Kong server? Is it consistent and stable? I would be interested to hear from anyone in East Asia, what their experience is when using the Hong Kong server.