diff --git a/build.xml b/build.xml
index c9230f985..8ce34077b 100644
--- a/build.xml
+++ b/build.xml
@@ -638,7 +638,7 @@
     </copy>
 
     <copy todir="${build.classes}"
-          overwrite="true">
+          overwrite="true" encoding="UTF-8">
       <fileset dir="${java.dir}">
         <include name="**/version.txt"/>
         <include name="**/defaultManifest.mf"/>
diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Manifest.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Manifest.java
index a6a5ff292..fe32bafc7 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Manifest.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Manifest.java
@@ -730,7 +730,7 @@ public class Manifest {
             }
             try {
                 Manifest defaultManifest 
-                    = new Manifest(new InputStreamReader(in, "ASCII"));
+                    = new Manifest(new InputStreamReader(in, "UTF-8"));
                 Attribute createdBy = new Attribute("Created-By", 
                     System.getProperty("java.vm.version") + " ("
                     + System.getProperty("java.vm.vendor") + ")" );