diff --git a/mesonpy/__init__.py b/mesonpy/__init__.py
index 0d9d5629a..917bd6d04 100644
--- a/mesonpy/__init__.py
+++ b/mesonpy/__init__.py
@@ -818,7 +818,7 @@ def build(self) -> None:
     def _info(self, name: str) -> Any:
         """Read info from meson-info directory."""
         info = self._build_dir.joinpath('meson-info', f'{name}.json')
-        return json.loads(info.read_text())
+        return json.loads(info.read_text(encoding='utf-8'))
 
     @property
     def _manifest(self) -> DefaultDict[str, List[Tuple[pathlib.Path, str]]]: