If you haven't upgraded to Word X, but need to get Chinese, Japanese, or other non-roman fonts out of a .doc file, here's a method that can help you out.
First, open the file in Classic. When the file is open, do a "Save As..." and save the file in RTF format. Open the saved file in TextEdit, and if OS X recognizes the character encoding, the file should open in its native language.
Note: there are probably other ways of doing this if you have a non-roman Classic installation, but this hint assumes you've installed the default North American version of OS 9.
Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20030913211132124