Zeta got 1 good run and that's it. Japan is easily the worst region and the 2nd best JPN team DFM is likely going 0-9. They have 2x Koreas population so why can't they be more gooder?!?!
Esports was considered gambling for a bit and Japan has very strict laws on gambling so they only recently got into the scene.
https://www.teamliquid.com/news/2018/07/14/esports-law-in-japan-an-introduction
They are just very far behind in terms of fps and most PC based games it's just not part of the culture. Japan really built itself off of its arcade and console gaming areas so that's where the bulk of its population's experience is prior to valorant they're next biggest success in a shooter was probably the overwatch world cup team. As well most of their players are transfers over from overwatch so the tack fps decision making and team play isn't there yet.
their tier 2 scene is really good. dfm are not a good team tbh, the reason why they got into franchising is that theyre the most commercially successful esport org in japan, you can see that from the amount of sponsors they have on their jerseys, so basically they got in franchising cuz they got clout as an org. just like how eg got into franchising while teams like m80 and the guard are in tier 2.