binmode STDOUT, ":utf8"; # connect and run your query on Access db... then: my @row = $sth->fetchrow_array; my $eng = shift @row; # first field is English my $kana = shift @row; # second field is Kana my $kanji = shift @row; # third field is Kanji my $kana_enc = getcode( $kana ); my $kanji_enc = getcode( $kanji ); if ( $kana_encoding ne $kanji_encoding ) { warn "Very strange: kana is in $kana_enc, but kanji is in $kanji_enc\n"; } my $kana_utf8 = decode( $kana_enc, $kana ); my $kanju_utf8 = decode( $kanji_enc, $kanji ); printf( "English: %s Kana: %s Kanji: %s\n", $eng, $kana_utf8, $kanji_utf8 );