It is fairly surprising that America are getting it before Japan as all of the people working on it are Japanese.
Not at all since the series is alot more popular here in the U.S. than it is in Japan... I think the original Metal Gear Solid sold about 500,000 copies in Japan while it sold millions in the U.S., and Metal Gear Solid 2 had similar sales in both territories and was released in the U.S. first as well.
It' s kind of becoming a trend for companies to release games first in the territories that they' re most popular in rather than sticking ot the Japan first tradition... Outrun 2 for starters was released in Europe first, followed by the U.S. and lastly the Japanese release which still hasn' t taken place yet. Resident Evil 4 is getting similar treatment.
And Sega recently smacked us with the shocker that they' re NOT releasing Altered Beast in the U.S.