nTEXT to what for MySQL?

[Scott Downey]

I am interested in using the utf8 char set with mysql 4.1
SQLServer uses nTEXT, can you just use TEXT for MySQL?
Also do you declare the charsets when you create the databases, before you create any tables?
Will utf8 unicode work with chinese and japanese characters?

I found nVarchar is National Varchar in MySQL and you have to put an N before any strings like this

select id from table where book = N'something'

Are there any other special considerations to know about? Thanks for any help.