to make this function work you have to add following two lines above this function.
mb_language("Ja");
mb_internal_encoding("utf-8");
mb_convert_kana($_POST['something_value'], "rna");(PHP 4 >= 4.0.6, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)
mb_convert_kana — Convert "kana" one from another ("zen-kaku", "han-kaku" and more)
   Performs a "han-kaku" - "zen-kaku" conversion for string string. 
   This function is only useful for Japanese.
  
stringThe string being converted.
modeThe conversion option.
Specify with a combination of following options.
| Option | Meaning | 
|---|---|
| r | Convert "zen-kaku" alphabets to "han-kaku" | 
| R | Convert "han-kaku" alphabets to "zen-kaku" | 
| n | Convert "zen-kaku" numbers to "han-kaku" | 
| N | Convert "han-kaku" numbers to "zen-kaku" | 
| a | Convert "zen-kaku" alphabets and numbers to "han-kaku" | 
| A | Convert "han-kaku" alphabets and numbers to "zen-kaku" (Characters included in "a", "A" options are U+0021 - U+007E excluding U+0022, U+0027, U+005C, U+007E) | 
| s | Convert "zen-kaku" space to "han-kaku" (U+3000 -> U+0020) | 
| S | Convert "han-kaku" space to "zen-kaku" (U+0020 -> U+3000) | 
| k | Convert "zen-kaku kata-kana" to "han-kaku kata-kana" | 
| K | Convert "han-kaku kata-kana" to "zen-kaku kata-kana" | 
| h | Convert "zen-kaku hira-gana" to "han-kaku kata-kana" | 
| H | Convert "han-kaku kata-kana" to "zen-kaku hira-gana" | 
| c | Convert "zen-kaku kata-kana" to "zen-kaku hira-gana" | 
| C | Convert "zen-kaku hira-gana" to "zen-kaku kata-kana" | 
| V | Collapse voiced sound notation and convert them into a character. Use with "K","H" | 
encodingПараметром
encoding вказується кодування символів. Якщо він
пропущений або null, використається внутрішнє кодування.
The converted string.
   Throws a ValueError if the combination of
   different modes is invalid.
   For example "sS".
  
| Версія | Опис | 
|---|---|
| 8.2.0 | A ValueError is now thrown if the
        combination of different modes is invalid. | 
| 8.0.0 | encodingтепер може бутиnull. | 
Приклад #1 mb_convert_kana() example
<?php
/* Convert all "han-kaku" "kata-kana" to "zen-kaku" "hira-gana" */
echo mb_convert_kana('ヤマダ ハナコ', "HV") . "\n";
/* Convert "han-kaku" "kata-kana" to "zen-kaku" "kata-kana" 
   and "zen-kaku" alphanumeric to "han-kaku" */
echo mb_convert_kana('コウザバンゴウ 0123456', "KVa") . "\n";
?>Поданий вище приклад виведе:
やまだ はなこ コウザバンゴウ 0123456
to make this function work you have to add following two lines above this function.
mb_language("Ja");
mb_internal_encoding("utf-8");
mb_convert_kana($_POST['something_value'], "rna");I didn't find Japanese sorting function. 
(mb_sort_kana or something)
Only SJIS encoding treats hankaku kata kana,
 I can't post here copy & paste version script.
I'm sorry...
You will replace comments with appropriate japanese string,
and write exception handlings between lines as you like.
<?php
mb_internal_encoding("SJIS");
$moji = /*"aiueo...wawon -?.," <- serialized hankaku kata kana 50 on hyou goes here*/;
$moji .= "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxwz0123456789";
for($i = 0; isset($moji[$i]); $i++){
    $pittan[$moji[$i]] = $i;
}
function cmp($a, $b)
{
   if ($a == $b) {
       return 0;
   }
   return iter(mb_convert_kana($a, "askh") ,mb_convert_kana($b, "askh"), 0);
}
function iter($a, $b, $i){
    global $pittan;
    if(!isset($a[$i]) || !isset($b[$i])){
        return (isset($b[$i]))? -1 : 1;
    }
    if ($pittan[$a[$i]] == $pittan[$b[$i]]){
        return iter($a, $b, ++$i);
    }
    return (($pittan[$a[$i]]) < ($pittan[$b[$i]]))? -1 : 1;
}
echo "<pre>";
$arr = array(/*some japanese array here*/);
usort($arr, "cmp");
var_dump($arr);
?>It seems that mb_convert_kana() doesn't convert symbols such as ' (single quoatation). It affected my program when I insert data into database. 
So, I've found 2 ways to solve this.
1) Use Javascript to convert those non-supported symbols before sending query string to your php page.
2) Use php function, str_replace $str, to replace those non-supported symbols. For example, $str = str_replace("'", "?", $str);
where the first single quot is half-width(han kaku), and the second one is full-width(zen kaku).