I seem to remember that the Japanese label wanted the album early. I think Richie was doing some sort of promo over there regarding a duet he did with a Japanese artist (the song was called Forever, but the name of the artist escapes me) and they wanted to capitalise on the exposure of that.

The album wasn't finished so Richie gave them an early, unfinished mix to release. I always thought it was a strange thing to do - maybe release a few songs but not the whole album. Anyways, I guess it was before the days of internet piracy, but imports were widely available a long time before the final version was released in the rest of the world.

Edit: Artist was Takashi Sorimach

https://youtu.be/theZxX3pEWs