The international diffusion of new technologies is strongly affected by the political, economic, and social dynamics of nations. Due to technological improvements and a shift to open standards facsimile (fax) machines were ready for a mass market as early as 1980. They were widely adopted in Japan during 1983, in the U.S.A. in 1987-1988, and in Western Europe only after 1992. Though barriers were about equally low in Japan and the U.S.A., Japan adopted the technology more quickly because transmitting written Japanese is much easier with a technology that scans pages rather than codes individual characters. Tariffs on imported machines, greater restrictions on connecting customer-owned equipment that could be connected to telephone lines, and higher charges for long distance calls were the principal reasons for the slower adoption of fax machines in Western Europe.
