I too found that trying to write Japanese literals in a script editor turned it to mojibake when compiling. i asked one of the AppleScript engineers how he ever codes in Unicode. I'll look up his answer, but I think he said he uses Project Builder, which is Unicode-enabled. I'll go check.
Nope. This is what he said:
"I use a combination of osascript and Script Editor. Script Editor can
mostly display Unicode, it just does it as styled text. At some point
we'll have to create a script editor that really understands Unicode;
whether that will be the existing Script Editor or a new application
(which may or may not be called Script Editor) is an open question. "
I believe that there was some talk of such-like things-to-come at WWDC.
So your Osaka is really just displaying styled text, not creating Unicode. That must be why you're having problems.
--
Paul Berkowitz
