A: No. It fixes the compatibility for fan-made English patches. The official Japanese cartridge remains Japanese-only.
: Most installation guides for the English patch explicitly state that the game must be updated to at least version 1.2.0 or higher (with 2.0 being the stable target) to ensure the patch files and "exefs" patches load correctly. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Hou -NSP--Update 2.0....