diff --git a/src/ooxml/java/org/apache/poi/POIXMLDocumentPart.java b/src/ooxml/java/org/apache/poi/POIXMLDocumentPart.java
index 7f4ee8ce3..24b4af238 100644
--- a/src/ooxml/java/org/apache/poi/POIXMLDocumentPart.java
+++ b/src/ooxml/java/org/apache/poi/POIXMLDocumentPart.java
@@ -60,6 +60,7 @@ public class POIXMLDocumentPart {
         DEFAULT_XML_OPTIONS.setSaveOuter();
         DEFAULT_XML_OPTIONS.setUseDefaultNamespace();
         DEFAULT_XML_OPTIONS.setSaveAggressiveNamespaces();
+        DEFAULT_XML_OPTIONS.setCharacterEncoding("UTF-8");
     }