Hi Christopher,

I tried the file you suggest with the latest version of ConTeXt and generated a new XeConTeXt (ConTeXt  ver: 2006.05.11 10:30  fmt: 2006.5.13, on MacOS X 10.4.6) and I didn't have any trouble with the following

%% begin japanese.tex
\starttext

\font\Myface="Hiragino Mincho Pro W3" at 14 pt
\Myface
こちらはテストです。日本語のテストです。
%\bye
\blank

works like a charm, and so does the ConTeXt way of defining a typeface:

\definetypeface[myface][rm][Xserif][Hiragino Mincho Pro W3]

\setupbodyfont[myface,14pt]

こちらはテストです。日本語のテストです。

\stoptext
%% end japanese.tex

the japanese text is typeset identically with \Myface (defined with the good old Plain TeX way) and \myface (defined in ConTeXt way).

Nevertheless still I encounter other problems with the new version of ConTeXt and I am reporting them in another thread.

Best regards: OK