diff --git a/.buckconfig b/.buckconfig
index b347a96a88..3ce69da9cd 100644
--- a/.buckconfig
+++ b/.buckconfig
@@ -20,6 +20,8 @@
 [java]
   jar_spool_mode = direct_to_jar
   src_roots = java, resources, src
+  source_level = 8
+  target_level = 8
 
 [project]
   ignore = .git, eclipse-out, bazel-gerrit, bin
diff --git a/Documentation/dev-buck.txt b/Documentation/dev-buck.txt
index 315c0b06b3..dd707f5647 100644
--- a/Documentation/dev-buck.txt
+++ b/Documentation/dev-buck.txt
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 
 == Installation
 
-You need to use Java 7 and Node.js for building gerrit.
+You need to use Java 8 and Node.js for building gerrit.
 
 There is currently no binary distribution of Buck, so it has to be manually
 built and installed.  Apache Ant and gcc are required.  Currently only Linux
diff --git a/gerrit-main/src/main/java/Main.java b/gerrit-main/src/main/java/Main.java
index a29f1c66a6..58de6a453f 100644
--- a/gerrit-main/src/main/java/Main.java
+++ b/gerrit-main/src/main/java/Main.java
@@ -31,11 +31,11 @@ public final class Main {
 
   private static boolean onSupportedJavaVersion() {
     final String version = System.getProperty("java.specification.version");
-    if (1.7 <= parse(version)) {
+    if (1.8 <= parse(version)) {
       return true;
 
     }
-    System.err.println("fatal: Gerrit Code Review requires Java 7 or later");
+    System.err.println("fatal: Gerrit Code Review requires Java 8 or later");
     System.err.println("       (trying to run on Java " + version + ")");
     return false;
   }