Hello StephT,
Only CVI 6.0 and later supports multibyte characters like japanese or chinese character. However if you only need to translate your GUI, the localizaton utility provided with CVI, look at Start » Programs » National Instruments » CVI» Utility Programs will help you.
you will find all the aswers you need in the following KB document and related links.
http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/websearch/F23D7180B0A1A76B86256BC3004FD865?OpenDocument
http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/websearch/9ED39758A26A096A862568960060271B?OpenDocument
http://zone.ni.com/devzone/conceptd.nsf/2d17d611efb58b22862567a9006ffe76/8e5032c3dfa304fd86256aa3006bf770?OpenDocument
Hope this help.
Salissou ISSA
Applications Engineer
National Instruments France