From what I can gather (checking the runs and various playthroughs on Youtube), 4 stars appears to be the 'default' on the NTSC-J release. Though I don't play SFA2 so I don't specifically know myself.
Asking the game mods of SFA2 would likely get you a better answer.
i have a youtube video i just created to prove the speedruns for street fighter alpha 2 with the damage level set to 4 are cheated runs japan or not
cheated because they did not use default settings as the rules require
u can also see two other settings that are adjusted..aka the automatic setting set to off
and the speed of the game set to turbo 2 and not turbo 1
also how may i contact the mods of street fighter alpha 2?
ah..my apologies..i found the forum location for the game itself..ill post this there
id delete this thread..but i don't think i can