Ok, some more info:

$KCODE = 'SHIFT_JIS'
require 'jcode'

semi-works!

I can print the correct value out to the cmd prompt with a simple:
p @test_data['pg_401']['address_1']

However with:
@@ie.text_field(:id,
@test_data['pg_401']['address_1_field']).set(@test_data['pg_401']['address_1'])

I'm getting garbage. Now I've just tested copy/paste manually into ie
and that works fine, so it looks like YAML/Syck is off the hook and now
it seems to be more of a Watir problem.

Thanks
Kev