When creating a database to be accessed via JDBC it is important to select an appropriate encoding for your data. Many other client interfaces do not care what data you send back and forth, and will allow you to do inappropriate things, but Java makes sure that your data is correctly encoded. Do not use a database that uses the SQL_ASCII encoding. This is not a real encoding and you will have problems the moment you store data in it that does not fit in the seven bit ASCII character set. If you do not know what your encoding will be or are otherwise unsure about what you will be storing the UTF8 encoding is a reasonable default to use.