Why does the US, aka the biggest market, not get the album as first ? That would avoid messy 1-3 weeks earlier leaks from Japanese/European releases.
Leaks barely damage album sales anymore (people are gonna download illegally either way if they want + albums are put on streaming for free early too). If anything, they help building hype.
Why are people talking about Japan? Just signed in.
Japan received shipments of ARTPOP as it's being released there on Nov. 6th and it's 7am there now so a leak is highly likely to come in the next few hours.
Remember how we were all worried that we were going to have most of the album before release, like with Born This Way because of "Farmville"...............................