Here is a script I have for testing:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use 5.14.0;
use utf8;
use Encode;
use JSON;

my $json = JSON->new->utf8->pretty();

STDOUT->binmode(":utf8");
my $umbreon = "ブラッキー";
my $test    = "\x{100}\x{2764}";

say "Name: $umbreon (is utf8: " . utf8::is_utf8($umbreon) . ")";
say "Test: $test (is utf8: " . utf8::is_utf8($test) . ")";

my $data = {
   name => $umbreon,
   test => $test,
};

open (my $fh, ">", "utf8-test.txt");
binmode($fh, ":utf8");
print {$fh} "Name: $umbreon\nTest: $test\n";
close($fh);

my $encoded = $json->encode($data);
print "encoded (original): $encoded (is utf8: " . utf8::is_utf8($encod
+ed) . ")\n";
$encoded = Encode::decode("utf-8", $encoded);
print "encoded: $encoded (utf8: " . utf8::is_utf8($encoded) . ")\n";
open (my $fh2, ">", "utf8-test.json");
binmode($fh2, ":utf8");
print {$fh2} $encoded;
close($fh2);
__END__

[kirsle@vostro ~]$ perl utf8-test.pl 
Name: ブラッキー (is utf8: 1)
Test: Ā❤ (is utf8: 1)
encoded (original): {
   "test" : "�€❤",
   "name" : "�ƒ–�ƒ��ƒƒ�‚��ƒ�"
}
 (is utf8: )
encoded: {
   "test" : "Ā❤",
   "name" : "ブラッキー"
}
 (utf8: 1)
[download]

From tinkering with this code, some observations:

• The "use utf8" is absolutely crucial. Otherwise, applying utf8 encoding to either STDOUT or the filehandle would mangle the text.
• If you don't "use utf8", and also don't change the binmodes, the Unicode text still prints intact to both the terminal and files. What gives? Does it inherit the system encoding or something?
• My JSON object is initialized with its utf8 option.
• $json->encode corrupts the UTF-8 (if printed to either place, the UTF-8 strings are corrupted and the is_utf8 flag is undef).
• When I implemented this on my site, I found that I had to:
  • When writing JSON, I had to call JSON's encode() first and then UTF-8 decode the output before writing to disk.
  • When reading from disk, I had to UTF-8 encode (mangle) the text from disk before giving it to JSON's decode(), otherwise JSON croaks about wide characters.

Imho, UTF-8 in Perl is full of confusing quirks. For my fellow monks, here is a pair of functions I wrote that will recursively switch on (or off) the UTF-8 flag on a data structure in Perl:

=head2 data utf8_decode (data)

Recursively UTF8-decode a data structure. Any data structure.

Decoding turns on the UTF-8 flag in Perl and makes Perl treat the data
+ as
string (so methods like C<length()> are accurate). If you want to prin
+t the
data over the network, you need to B<encode> it into bytes.

=cut

sub utf8_decode {
    my $data = shift;
    my $encode = shift || 0;

    # If it's a data structure (hash or array), recurse over its conte
+nts.
    if (ref($data) eq "HASH") {
        foreach my $key (keys %{$data}) {
            # Another data structure?
            if (ref($data->{$key})) {
                # Recurse.
                $data->{$key} = utf8_decode($data->{$key}, $encode);
                next;
            }

            # Encode the scalar.
            $data->{$key} = utf8_decode($data->{$key}, $encode);
        }
    }
    elsif (ref($data) eq "ARRAY") {
        foreach my $key (@{$data}) {
            # Another data structure?
            if (ref($key)) {
                # Recurse.
                $key = utf8_decode($key, $encode);
                next;
            }

            # Encode the scalar.
            $key = utf8_decode($key, $encode);
        }
    }
    else {
        # This is a leaf node in our data (a scalar). Encode UTF-8!
        my $is_utf8 = utf8::is_utf8($data);

        # Are they *encoding* (turning into bytes) instead of *decodin
+g*?
        if ($encode) {
            # Encoding (making bytestream): only decode IF it is curre
+ntly UTF8.
            return $data unless $is_utf8;
            $data = Encode::encode("UTF-8", $data);
        }
        else {
            # Decoding. If it's ALREADY UTF-8, do not decode it again.
            return $data if $is_utf8;
            $data = Encode::decode("UTF-8", $data);
        }
    }

    return $data;
}

=head2 data utf8_encode (data)

Recursively UTF8 encode a data structure. B<Encoding> means turning th
+e data
into a byte stream (so string operators like C<length()> will be inacc
+urate).

Encoding is necessary to transmit a Unicode string over a network.

=cut

sub utf8_encode {
    my $data = shift;
    return utf8_decode($data, 1);
}
[download]

This is handy when you need to convert strings to or from byte streams. I apply a decode to all the incoming CGI params (just to be sure they're all UTF-8), and when I need to take an md5_hex of a string, I encode it to bytes first (because Digest::MD5 will croak if you try to md5_hex a string with wide characters).