Inserting UTF-8 Japanese into MySQL: phpMyAdmin works, my form doesn't.

Using MySQL 4.1.3-beta-standard, PHP Version 4.4.6. I've also tried
PHP Version 5.2.2 with exactly the same results.

I have a table with utf8_general_ci collation. If I use phpMyAdmin, I
can insert Japanese text into it with no problem.

However, a simple form I've created is inserting mangled Japanese text
into MySQL.

My form's page has a meta tag setting the charset to UTF-8.
After the form has been submitted, I can echo the Japanese text to the
feedback page just fine, so I assume the data is being sent properly
encoded.

高橋アントニオ gets put into MySQL from my form as 高æ(c)‹ã‚¢ãƒ³ãƒˆãƒ‹ã‚ª
But as I said, I can insert the same text via phpMyAdmin without any problem.

The php code is as simple as I can make it

$username = 'tony';
$password = 'emmauspa';
$name = '高橋アントニオ';
$email = '[email protected]';
$gender = 'M';
$country = '4';
$nationality = '4';
$language = '1';
$dob = '1994-01-04';
$phone = '967-1261';
$connection = mysql_connect('localhost', 'user', 'password') or die
('Unable to connect!');
mysql_select_db('gdbase') or die ('Unable to select database!');
$query="INSERT INTO members (username, password, name, email, gender,
country, nationality, language, dob, phone)
VALUES('$username','$password','$name','$email','$gender',$country,$nationality,$language,'$dob','$phone')";
$result = mysql_query($query) or die ("Error in query: $query. " .
mysql_error());
echo 'New record inserted with ID' . mysql_insert_id() . '<br />';
echo mysql_affected_rows() . 'records(s) affected.';
mysql_close($connection);

My mbstring settings in php.ini:

mbstring.detect_order	= auto
mbstring.encoding_translation	= On
mbstring.func_overload	= 0
mbstring.http_input	= auto
mbstring.http_output	= UTF-8
mbstring.internal_encoding	= UTF-8
mbstring.language = Neutral
mbstring.substitute_character	= no value

What the heck am I doing wrong, or how can I figure out where the
problem is? I tried to follow the insertion routine in phpMyAdmin, but
the code is way over my head. I've been at this for days and days.

Thanks,

Rich