Searching MySQL with Japanese chars

Hi, I am developing my first application that will have to handle with japanese data stored in a MySQL database. After digging a while it seems that I'd have to set all pieces (from the charset of the apache, to the encoding of the templates and database fields) set to UTF-8. I'd like to know if there is something special that I have to be aware when doing searches. I am not sure that this is more related to PHP or MySQL itself so before sending to them (MySQL list) I'd like to hear from you. Thanks.