Convert Japanese double byte to single byte?

[LucieInTheSky]

Hello,

I'm new here and hope that someone will be able to help.
I'm working with my brother to create a multilingual website for a small biz we are starting and one of the languages we are using is Japanese.
We have now encountered the following obstacle and are completely at an impasse.

He has written a POWERBUILDER program that updates a MYSQL database using an ODBC link. We have a Multi-line edit that will successfully display the Japanese characters
but will not convert it to be stored in the database.

The field we need it to be saved into is data type - memo.

What we need is a function to convert the Japanese Double byte character set into a single byte character set. Our website already translates the content into double bytes character sets successfully.

So ideally he wants to be able to write in the code convertToDouble(“singlebytetext”) And convertToSingle(“Doublebytetext”)

(IT'S A POWERBUILDER PROBLEM NOT A NOT a PHP or webbased answer)

I would REALLY appreciate ANY constructive help you can offer.

thanks,

L.