diff --git a/jOOQ-codegen/src/main/java/org/jooq/util/AbstractGenerator.java b/jOOQ-codegen/src/main/java/org/jooq/util/AbstractGenerator.java
index 31eef95eaa..441cfe5c50 100644
--- a/jOOQ-codegen/src/main/java/org/jooq/util/AbstractGenerator.java
+++ b/jOOQ-codegen/src/main/java/org/jooq/util/AbstractGenerator.java
@@ -84,6 +84,7 @@ abstract class AbstractGenerator implements Generator {
     boolean                            generateTableValuedFunctions     = false;
 
     protected GeneratorStrategyWrapper strategy;
+    protected String                   targetEncoding                   = "UTF-8";
     final Language                     language;
 
     AbstractGenerator(Language language) {
@@ -448,6 +449,16 @@ abstract class AbstractGenerator implements Generator {
         return strategy.getTargetPackage();
     }
 
+    @Override
+    public String getTargetEncoding() {
+        return targetEncoding;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public void setTargetEncoding(String encoding) {
+        this.targetEncoding = encoding;
+    }
+
     /**
      * If file is a directory, recursively empty its children.
      * If file is a file, delete it.
diff --git a/jOOQ-codegen/src/main/java/org/jooq/util/GenerationTool.java b/jOOQ-codegen/src/main/java/org/jooq/util/GenerationTool.java
index 3cbd451ebf..1441ea99ed 100644
--- a/jOOQ-codegen/src/main/java/org/jooq/util/GenerationTool.java
+++ b/jOOQ-codegen/src/main/java/org/jooq/util/GenerationTool.java
@@ -409,9 +409,12 @@ public class GenerationTool {
                 g.getTarget().setPackageName("org.jooq.generated");
             if (StringUtils.isBlank(g.getTarget().getDirectory()))
                 g.getTarget().setDirectory("target/generated-sources/jooq");
+            if (StringUtils.isBlank(g.getTarget().getEncoding()))
+                g.getTarget().setEncoding("UTF-8");
 
             generator.setTargetPackage(g.getTarget().getPackageName());
             generator.setTargetDirectory(g.getTarget().getDirectory());
+            generator.setTargetEncoding(g.getTarget().getEncoding());
 
             // [#1394] The <generate/> element should be optional
             if (g.getGenerate() == null)
diff --git a/jOOQ-codegen/src/main/java/org/jooq/util/Generator.java b/jOOQ-codegen/src/main/java/org/jooq/util/Generator.java
index dfb6c9144e..486e53c172 100644
--- a/jOOQ-codegen/src/main/java/org/jooq/util/Generator.java
+++ b/jOOQ-codegen/src/main/java/org/jooq/util/Generator.java
@@ -389,6 +389,16 @@ public interface Generator {
      */
     void setTargetDirectory(String directory);
 
+    /**
+     * The target encoding
+     */
+    String getTargetEncoding();
+
+    /**
+     * Initialise the target encoding
+     */
+    void setTargetEncoding(String encoding);
+
     /**
      * @return Get the target package for the current configuration
      */
diff --git a/jOOQ-codegen/src/main/java/org/jooq/util/GeneratorWriter.java b/jOOQ-codegen/src/main/java/org/jooq/util/GeneratorWriter.java
index 605d957249..53140a5890 100644
--- a/jOOQ-codegen/src/main/java/org/jooq/util/GeneratorWriter.java
+++ b/jOOQ-codegen/src/main/java/org/jooq/util/GeneratorWriter.java
@@ -80,15 +80,21 @@ public abstract class GeneratorWriter<W extends GeneratorWriter<W>> {
 
 
     private final File           file;
+    private final String         encoding;
     private final StringBuilder  sb;
     private int                  indentTabs;
     private String               tabString    = "    ";
     private boolean              newline      = true;
 
     protected GeneratorWriter(File file) {
+        this(file, null);
+    }
+
+    protected GeneratorWriter(File file, String encoding) {
         file.getParentFile().mkdirs();
 
         this.file = file;
+        this.encoding = encoding;
         this.sb = new StringBuilder();
     }
 
@@ -259,7 +265,7 @@ public abstract class GeneratorWriter<W extends GeneratorWriter<W>> {
                     old = new RandomAccessFile(file, "r");
                     byte[] oldBytes = new byte[(int) old.length()];
                     old.readFully(oldBytes);
-                    oldContent = new String(oldBytes, "UTF-8");
+                    oldContent = new String(oldBytes, encoding());
                 }
                 finally {
                     if (old != null)
@@ -268,7 +274,7 @@ public abstract class GeneratorWriter<W extends GeneratorWriter<W>> {
             }
 
             if (oldContent == null || !oldContent.equals(newContent)) {
-                PrintWriter writer = new PrintWriter(new OutputStreamWriter(new FileOutputStream(file), "UTF-8"));
+                PrintWriter writer = new PrintWriter(new OutputStreamWriter(new FileOutputStream(file), encoding()));
 
                 writer.append(newContent);
                 writer.flush();
@@ -283,6 +289,10 @@ public abstract class GeneratorWriter<W extends GeneratorWriter<W>> {
         }
     }
 
+    protected String encoding() {
+        return encoding != null ? encoding : "UTF-8";
+    }
+
     protected String beforeClose(String string) {
         return string;
     }
diff --git a/jOOQ-codegen/src/main/java/org/jooq/util/JavaGenerator.java b/jOOQ-codegen/src/main/java/org/jooq/util/JavaGenerator.java
index 46d5729a54..900e89c9d9 100644
--- a/jOOQ-codegen/src/main/java/org/jooq/util/JavaGenerator.java
+++ b/jOOQ-codegen/src/main/java/org/jooq/util/JavaGenerator.java
@@ -5127,7 +5127,7 @@ public class JavaGenerator extends AbstractGenerator {
         if (scala)
             file = new File(file.getParentFile(), file.getName().replace(".java", ".scala"));
 
-        return new JavaWriter(file, generateFullyQualifiedTypes());
+        return new JavaWriter(file, generateFullyQualifiedTypes(), targetEncoding);
     }
 
     // [#4626] Users may need to call this method
diff --git a/jOOQ-codegen/src/main/java/org/jooq/util/JavaWriter.java b/jOOQ-codegen/src/main/java/org/jooq/util/JavaWriter.java
index 41bbf6e65d..217daed401 100644
--- a/jOOQ-codegen/src/main/java/org/jooq/util/JavaWriter.java
+++ b/jOOQ-codegen/src/main/java/org/jooq/util/JavaWriter.java
@@ -37,7 +37,11 @@ public class JavaWriter extends GeneratorWriter<JavaWriter> {
     private final Pattern             PLAIN_GENERIC_TYPE_PATTERN = Pattern.compile("[<\\[]((?:[\\p{L}_$][\\p{L}\\p{N}_$]*\\.)*[\\p{L}_$][\\p{L}\\p{N}_$]*)[>\\]]");
 
     public JavaWriter(File file, String fullyQualifiedTypes) {
-        super(file);
+        this(file, fullyQualifiedTypes, null);
+    }
+
+    public JavaWriter(File file, String fullyQualifiedTypes, String encoding) {
+        super(file, encoding);
 
         this.className = file.getName().replaceAll("\\.(java|scala)$", "");
         this.isJava = file.getName().endsWith(".java");
diff --git a/jOOQ-meta/src/main/resources/xsd/jooq-codegen-3.8.0.xsd b/jOOQ-meta/src/main/resources/xsd/jooq-codegen-3.8.0.xsd
index db32070c45..425dd700e4 100644
--- a/jOOQ-meta/src/main/resources/xsd/jooq-codegen-3.8.0.xsd
+++ b/jOOQ-meta/src/main/resources/xsd/jooq-codegen-3.8.0.xsd
@@ -855,6 +855,9 @@
 
       <!-- The destination directory of your generated classes -->
       <element name="directory" type="string" default="target/generated-sources/jooq" />
+
+      <!-- The file encoding to be used with all output files. -->
+      <element name="encoding" type="string" default="UTF-8"/>
     </all>
   </complexType>