diff --git a/gerrit-acceptance-tests/src/test/java/com/google/gerrit/acceptance/GitUtil.java b/gerrit-acceptance-tests/src/test/java/com/google/gerrit/acceptance/GitUtil.java
index 494f094bc7..dee36ef0be 100644
--- a/gerrit-acceptance-tests/src/test/java/com/google/gerrit/acceptance/GitUtil.java
+++ b/gerrit-acceptance-tests/src/test/java/com/google/gerrit/acceptance/GitUtil.java
@@ -46,8 +46,10 @@ import org.eclipse.jgit.util.FS;
 
 import java.io.BufferedWriter;
 import java.io.File;
-import java.io.FileWriter;
+import java.io.FileOutputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.OutputStreamWriter;
+import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Properties;
 
@@ -128,8 +130,9 @@ public class GitUtil {
     if (!p.exists() && !p.mkdirs()) {
       throw new IOException("failed to create dir: " + p.getAbsolutePath());
     }
-    FileWriter w = new FileWriter(f);
-    BufferedWriter out = new BufferedWriter(w);
+    FileOutputStream s = new FileOutputStream(f);
+    BufferedWriter out = new BufferedWriter(
+        new OutputStreamWriter(s, StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
     try {
       out.write(content);
     } finally {
diff --git a/gerrit-acceptance-tests/src/test/java/com/google/gerrit/acceptance/edit/ChangeEditIT.java b/gerrit-acceptance-tests/src/test/java/com/google/gerrit/acceptance/edit/ChangeEditIT.java
index f16c677790..4726079319 100644
--- a/gerrit-acceptance-tests/src/test/java/com/google/gerrit/acceptance/edit/ChangeEditIT.java
+++ b/gerrit-acceptance-tests/src/test/java/com/google/gerrit/acceptance/edit/ChangeEditIT.java
@@ -72,6 +72,7 @@ import org.junit.Test;
 
 import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import java.util.Date;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicLong;
@@ -656,21 +657,21 @@ public class ChangeEditIT extends AbstractDaemonTest {
   private String newChange(Git git, PersonIdent ident) throws Exception {
     PushOneCommit push =
         pushFactory.create(db, ident, PushOneCommit.SUBJECT, FILE_NAME,
-            new String(CONTENT_OLD));
+            new String(CONTENT_OLD, StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
     return push.to(git, "refs/for/master").getChangeId();
   }
 
   private String amendChange(Git git, PersonIdent ident, String changeId) throws Exception {
     PushOneCommit push =
         pushFactory.create(db, ident, PushOneCommit.SUBJECT, FILE_NAME2,
-            new String(CONTENT_NEW2), changeId);
+            new String(CONTENT_NEW2, StandardCharsets.UTF_8), changeId);
     return push.to(git, "refs/for/master").getChangeId();
   }
 
   private String newChange2(Git git, PersonIdent ident) throws Exception {
     PushOneCommit push =
         pushFactory.create(db, ident, PushOneCommit.SUBJECT, FILE_NAME,
-            new String(CONTENT_OLD));
+            new String(CONTENT_OLD, StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
     return push.rm(git, "refs/for/master").getChangeId();
   }