I don't think this is a big barrier, except for the fact that Western computers didn't have good support for Japanese from the beginning. Earlier, heavier adopt

I don't think this is a big barrier, except for the fact that Western computers didn't have good support for Japanese from the beginning. Earlier, heavier adoption of PCs might have changed the course of history, but at the time it would have been difficult to choose a 286 with DOS vs one of the Japanese computers.