diff --git a/tomcat-multiple-instances/defaults/main.yml b/tomcat-multiple-instances/defaults/main.yml
index b92ee1b..502b213 100644
--- a/tomcat-multiple-instances/defaults/main.yml
+++ b/tomcat-multiple-instances/defaults/main.yml
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@ tomcat_m_max_threads: 200
 tomcat_m_min_heap_size: 2048m
 tomcat_m_heap_size: '{{ tomcat_m_min_heap_size }}'
 tomcat_m_permgen_size: 512m
+tomcat_m_file_encoding: 'UTF-8'
 tomcat_m_restart_timeout: 300
 # -server -Djava.awt.headless=true are always used. No need to specify them
 tomcat_m_java_opts_heap: "-Xms{{ tomcat_m_min_heap_size }} -Xmx{{ tomcat_m_heap_size }}"
diff --git a/tomcat-multiple-instances/templates/tomcat-default.j2 b/tomcat-multiple-instances/templates/tomcat-default.j2
index 0501c1f..2806540 100644
--- a/tomcat-multiple-instances/templates/tomcat-default.j2
+++ b/tomcat-multiple-instances/templates/tomcat-default.j2
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 TOMCAT_USER={{ item.user }}
 TOMCAT_GROUP={{ item.user }}
 JAVA_HOME={{ item.java_home }}
-JAVA_OPTS="-server -Djava.awt.headless=true"
+JAVA_OPTS="-server -Djava.awt.headless=true -Dfile.encoding={{ tomcat_m_file_encoding }}"
 {% if item.java_heap is defined %}
 JAVA_HEAP="{{ item.java_heap }}"
 {% else %}