Yes, of course — but the point is that native English speakers would have blocked such an absurd proposal no matter what.

Han Unification is just as absurd and just as unacceptable to a native Japanese speaker as Greco Unification would be to a native English speaker. But Han Unification went through because native Japanese speakers were not in a position to block it. Representation matters.

Were they? Or were they worried that their characters would be the ones given 4 bytes, and unifying means not squabbling with China and Korea over who goes first? It's not like Japan was not a technical center at the time. Shift-JIS is still around.

(EDIT: for screen reader users, a translation follows.)

¢σηѕι∂єяιηg тнє нιѕтσяι¢αℓ αηтιραтну вєтωєєη נαραη αη∂ ¢нιηα ιт'ѕ ρяєρσѕтєяσυѕ тнαт тнє נαραηєѕє ωσυℓ∂ υηιℓαтєяαℓℓу ѕα¢яιƒι¢є тнєιя ¢υℓтυяє ιη ѕυ¢н α ωαу.

(EDIT: Considering the historical antipathy between Japan and China it's preposterous that the Japanese would unilaterally sacrifice their culture in such a way.)