I didn't import - JTAG. I'm surprised why they delayed the game for US and Europe for another 8 months. The game is ready, it has JP, english, spanish, italian and french voice acting and subtitles. Sega's troll move?
SEGA of America and SEGA of Europe are in dire situations. They just faced a series of layoffs and closures earlier this year. I think the problem is they don't want to pay to distribute it, fearing it'll fail. This actually would be the perfect time to release it, but I guess they think otherwise. It looks like the situation as it stands is a "wait and see" sort of thing. They're probably closely analyzing sales in Japan and they're also seeing if they can turn things around, with a lot of their hope riding on the new Aliens: Colonial Marines game that has been long in development by Gearbox.
Besides that, they've also announced that they're only focusing on the Total War, Pro Football Manager, and Sonic the Hedgehog franchises primarily besides Aliens, for now. These are all money-making franchises (which is why they recently announced Total War: Rome II and Sonic Adventure 2 HD) and safe bets in both territories. They're also banking on HD re-releases like NiGHTS into Dreams HD and Jet Set Radio HD, as well. It appears that SEGA of Japan will continue as normal, making Yakuza 5, and they just released this recently. All we can do now is hope for the best for SEGA.
I've been watching this game since its reveal way back, and the demo was quite fun, so it does peeve me that the release was pushed way back despite localization being complete, but I understand their financial situation. If worst comes to worst, I'll just import eventually.