Can't read Japanese characters

Where did you get the files? They are probably in the wrong encoding. This utility may help in some cases:

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/filenameencodingrepairutility.html

I tried to follow the link provided - and when that didn't work, googled and found another link. However, the application didn't really work.

In my case, I'm looking at files on a common server, which have been created by a variety of Mac and PC's running on native English and Japanese OS's.

Is there some other fix I could do to get these file names into a readable format?

B&W G4/600 T-1202Combo; PB G4/1.33/15" Combo; iMac G4/15" Combo Mac OS X (10.4.8) 160GB FW HD

I tried to follow the link provided - and when that
didn't work, googled and found another link.

For reference, the new link is:

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/macosx_updates/filenameencodingrepai rutility.html

In my case, I'm looking at files on a common server,
which have been created by a variety of Mac and PC's
running on native English and Japanese OS's.

Is there some other fix I could do to get these file
names into a readable format?

I don't know if there is any way to do that without having the file on your machine and running it through the filename repair utility. Sometimes the method used to connect to a server will offer you a choice of encodings, in which case the most common Japanese one is probably Shift-JIS.