As you may be aware idn (international domain names) are becoming more widespread.
We are using email login for our Zikula system because it includes domain and email management.
Thus the email address is a better login id than an additional identifier.
IDN names are also becoming common in Japan and I've extended the code to handle such domains.
http://groups.google.com/group/zikul...4acf0b6b?pli=1