diff --git a/WHATSNEW b/WHATSNEW
index 3400159ac..e5cda6b96 100644
--- a/WHATSNEW
+++ b/WHATSNEW
@@ -15,6 +15,9 @@ Changes that could break older environments:
    same instance. This will now cause the build to fail.
    Bugzilla Report 59402
 
+ * <native2ascii> will default to the buitin implementation on Java8
+   as well (sun isn't available for Java9+ anyway).
+
 Fixed bugs:
 -----------
 
diff --git a/manual/Tasks/native2ascii.html b/manual/Tasks/native2ascii.html
index ecc065a3d..101771489 100644
--- a/manual/Tasks/native2ascii.html
+++ b/manual/Tasks/native2ascii.html
@@ -62,13 +62,12 @@
       <a name="implementationvalues">Here are the choices of the attribute</a>:</p>
     <ul>
       <li>default - the default converter for the platform - kaffee
-        when run on Kaffee, builtin if JDK9 or newer is detected, sun
-        otherwise.</li>
-      <li>sun (the standard converter of the JDK < 9)</li>
+        when run on Kaffee, builtin otherwise.</li>
+      <li>sun (used to be the standard converter of the JDK < 9)</li>
       <li>kaffe (the standard converter
         of <a href="http://www.kaffe.org" target="_top">Kaffe</a>)</li>
-      <li>builtin - Ant's internal implementation used for
-        JDK9+. <em>since ant 1.9.8</em></li>
+      <li>builtin - Ant's internal implementation. <em>since ant
+          1.9.8</em></li>
     </ul>
 
     <table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/optional/native2ascii/Native2AsciiAdapterFactory.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/optional/native2ascii/Native2AsciiAdapterFactory.java
index e8bd74d16..74bb32320 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/optional/native2ascii/Native2AsciiAdapterFactory.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/optional/native2ascii/Native2AsciiAdapterFactory.java
@@ -43,9 +43,6 @@ public class Native2AsciiAdapterFactory {
         if (shouldUseKaffee()) {
             return KaffeNative2Ascii.IMPLEMENTATION_NAME;
         }
-        if (shouldUseSun()) {
-            return SunNative2Ascii.IMPLEMENTATION_NAME;
-        }
         return BuiltinNative2Ascii.IMPLEMENTATION_NAME;
     }
 
@@ -85,8 +82,7 @@ public class Native2AsciiAdapterFactory {
         if ((shouldUseKaffee() && choice == null)
             || KaffeNative2Ascii.IMPLEMENTATION_NAME.equals(choice)) {
             return new KaffeNative2Ascii();
-        } else if ((shouldUseSun() && choice == null)
-                   || SunNative2Ascii.IMPLEMENTATION_NAME.equals(choice)) {
+        } else if (SunNative2Ascii.IMPLEMENTATION_NAME.equals(choice)) {
             return new SunNative2Ascii();
         } else if (BuiltinNative2Ascii.IMPLEMENTATION_NAME.equals(choice)) {
             return new BuiltinNative2Ascii();
@@ -121,11 +117,4 @@ public class Native2AsciiAdapterFactory {
     private static final boolean shouldUseKaffee() {
         return JavaEnvUtils.isKaffe() || JavaEnvUtils.isClasspathBased();
     }
-
-    private static final boolean shouldUseSun() {
-        return JavaEnvUtils.isJavaVersion(JavaEnvUtils.JAVA_1_5)
-            || JavaEnvUtils.isJavaVersion(JavaEnvUtils.JAVA_1_6)
-            || JavaEnvUtils.isJavaVersion(JavaEnvUtils.JAVA_1_7)
-            || JavaEnvUtils.isJavaVersion(JavaEnvUtils.JAVA_1_8);
-    }
 }