diff --git a/database/database.mysql b/database/database.mysql
index a7a9ee06181fa059b66d622cf050898cd9a94de0..bf09b183e5c8083b372a07818ed6089c5cdcb700 100644
--- a/database/database.mysql
+++ b/database/database.mysql
@@ -395,7 +395,7 @@ CREATE TABLE locales_source (
 
 CREATE TABLE locales_target (
   lid int(11) NOT NULL default '0',
-  translation blob NOT NULL,
+  translation blob NOT NULL default '',
   locale varchar(12) NOT NULL default '',
   plid int(11) NOT NULL default '0',
   plural int(1) NOT NULL default '0',
diff --git a/database/updates.inc b/database/updates.inc
index 23fbf1ab0cff7e780429eb64633a3de20ce0b5b4..b002548f698d7802f8be907b2783bbce35b371d6 100644
--- a/database/updates.inc
+++ b/database/updates.inc
@@ -1698,3 +1698,13 @@ function system_update_174() {
   }
   return array();
 }
+
+function system_update_175() {
+  $ret = array();
+  switch ($GLOBALS['db_type']) {
+    case 'mysql':
+    case 'mysqli':
+      $ret[] = update_sql("ALTER TABLE {locales_target} ALTER COLUMN translation SET DEFAULT ''");
+  }
+  return $ret;
+}