diff --git a/mains/utf8lua.go b/mains/utf8lua.go
index 99b5233e..720eb54d 100644
--- a/mains/utf8lua.go
+++ b/mains/utf8lua.go
@@ -36,5 +36,6 @@ func utf8codes(L *lua.LState) int {
 func SetupUtf8Table(L *lua.LState) {
 	table := L.NewTable()
 	L.SetField(table, "codes", L.NewFunction(utf8codes))
+	L.SetField(table, "charpattern", lua.LString("[\000-\x7F\xC2-\xF4][\x80-\xBF]*"))
 	L.SetGlobal("utf8", table)
 }
diff --git a/t/tst_utf8lib.lua b/t/tst_utf8lib.lua
index aedcab94..7731e613 100644
--- a/t/tst_utf8lib.lua
+++ b/t/tst_utf8lib.lua
@@ -1,4 +1,13 @@
 
+--- Compare
+---   lua_f tst_utf8lib.lua
+--  and
+---   lua.exe tst_utf8lib.lua | nkf32
+
 for i,c in utf8.codes("あいうえお") do
     print(i,c,type(c))
 end
+
+for c in string.gmatch("あいうえお",utf8.charpattern) do
+    print(c)
+end