Is it confirmed that the 3DS region lock is in fact hardware based? Or is it possible, using a proxy or some such to trick, say, a Japanese 3DS into downloading and installing a US Firmware Update? The 3DS would probably check the firmware region before installing though, even if you did get it to download another regions firmware...then again, I've been surprised before at the obvious things game companies sometimes screw up on, so who knows....
Even if this was possible, this would not be a good idea all around if it's anything like the Wii. Installing out of region updates on the Wii gives you a semi-brick. You'll have to wait for a 3ds card or custom firmware.
It's a hardware code. I read it somewhere official, I don't remember where. But they said it was just a code in the 3DS hardware. Like the Wii.
Software contains it's own resources so limiting that by region is on purpose, but an OS can't take chances like that.
