I can confirm that it does indeed work.
- Opened notepad and pasted chars from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_writing_system- Saved with UTF-8 encoding
- Put $read(file.txt) in the Quit Message dialog field
- Quit
Note that UTF-8 is set to display and encode in the Font menu; UTF-8 display and Font Linking are enabled in the Messages menu.