diff --git a/hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/dialect/Dialect.java b/hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/dialect/Dialect.java
index 8cae290faa..5a4181fac6 100644
--- a/hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/dialect/Dialect.java
+++ b/hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/dialect/Dialect.java
@@ -579,6 +579,15 @@ public abstract class Dialect implements ConversionContext, TypeContributor, Fun
 		};
 	}
 
+	/**
+	 * Does this dialect strip trailing spaces from values stored
+	 * in columns of type {@code char(n)}?
+	 * MySQL is the main offender here.
+	 */
+	public boolean stripsTrailingSpacesFromChar() {
+		return false;
+	}
+
 	/**
 	 * The SQL type to use in {@code cast( ... as ... )} expressions when
 	 * casting to the target type represented by the given JDBC type code.
diff --git a/hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/dialect/MySQLDialect.java b/hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/dialect/MySQLDialect.java
index 10c1090a3b..a32676dd5e 100644
--- a/hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/dialect/MySQLDialect.java
+++ b/hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/dialect/MySQLDialect.java
@@ -284,6 +284,16 @@ public class MySQLDialect extends Dialect {
 		};
 	}
 
+	/**
+	 * MySQL strips any trailing space character from a
+	 * value stored in a column of type {@code char(n)}.
+	 * @return {@code true}
+	 */
+	@Override
+	public boolean stripsTrailingSpacesFromChar() {
+		return true;
+	}
+
 	@Override
 	public boolean useMaterializedLobWhenCapacityExceeded() {
 		// MySQL has no real concept of LOBs, so we can just use longtext/longblob with the materialized JDBC APIs
diff --git a/hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/type/descriptor/java/CharacterJavaType.java b/hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/type/descriptor/java/CharacterJavaType.java
index fbc6bccb72..f240db0f10 100644
--- a/hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/type/descriptor/java/CharacterJavaType.java
+++ b/hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/type/descriptor/java/CharacterJavaType.java
@@ -63,19 +63,32 @@ public class CharacterJavaType extends AbstractClassJavaType<Character> implemen
 		if ( value == null ) {
 			return null;
 		}
-		if (value instanceof Character character) {
+		else if (value instanceof Character character) {
 			return character;
 		}
-		if (value instanceof String string) {
-			if ( string.length() != 1 ) {
-				throw new CoercionException( "value must contain exactly one character: '" + string + "'" );
+		else if (value instanceof String string) {
+			switch ( string.length() ) {
+				case 1:
+					return string.charAt( 0 );
+				case 0:
+					if ( options.getDialect().stripsTrailingSpacesFromChar() ) {
+						// we previously stored char values in char(1) columns on MySQL
+						// but MySQL strips trailing spaces from the value when read
+						return ' ';
+					}
+					else {
+						throw new CoercionException( "value does not contain a character: '" + string + "'" );
+					}
+				default:
+					throw new CoercionException( "value contains more than one character: '" + string + "'" );
 			}
-			return string.charAt( 0 );
 		}
-		if (value instanceof Number number) {
+		else if (value instanceof Number number) {
 			return (char) number.shortValue();
 		}
-		throw unknownWrap( value.getClass() );
+		else {
+			throw unknownWrap( value.getClass() );
+		}
 	}
 
 	@Override