Hi,
same problem with 9700 from T-Mobile Germany.
I've tried almost all recommended device software and it does not work!!
So far, I'm in contact with another german guy at:
BlackBerry Forum - BB 9700: Eastasian Eingabesprache geht nicht
He has the same problem with Vodafone Germany devices.
According to his post, Vodafone BB support tried to install the eastasian device software on three 9700 BB's.
The input did not work on two of them!!
So they made a support case at RIM.
He told me to come back to this...
Anyway, from my point I think that there might be something "special" on these european BB itself.
I had the same problem with a Bold 9000 device before.
I installed east asian on ~15 devices without a problem.
The newest Bold 9000 device I received did not work with Japanese.
I sent it back, got another one and it worked fine.