Originally Posted by Miu

RIP the dream, for real this time

That's an unfortunate decision by the developers. It means the US players will never have a chance to participate in the events in the same way as the Japan players.

What makes more sense for "fairness" would be for the US to be able to run their own popularity contests and then share the reskinned versions for both contents across both regions. This would be a win-win for both regions and it means that US players are not excluded from the event.