diff --git a/lib/Catalyst/Action/Serialize/JSON.pm b/lib/Catalyst/Action/Serialize/JSON.pm
index 9f4cf44..42ea100 100644
--- a/lib/Catalyst/Action/Serialize/JSON.pm
+++ b/lib/Catalyst/Action/Serialize/JSON.pm
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ has encoder => (
 
 sub _build_encoder {
    my $self = shift;
-   return JSON->new->utf8->convert_blessed;
+   return JSON->new->convert_blessed;
 }
 
 sub execute {
diff --git a/lib/Catalyst/Action/SerializeBase.pm b/lib/Catalyst/Action/SerializeBase.pm
index 8ba1100..67718de 100644
--- a/lib/Catalyst/Action/SerializeBase.pm
+++ b/lib/Catalyst/Action/SerializeBase.pm
@@ -126,9 +126,16 @@ sub _load_content_plugins {
         } elsif ($c->request->accept_only) {
             $c->response->header( 'Vary' => 'Accept' );
         }
+
         $c->response->content_type($content_type);
     }
 
+    if ( $config->{'encoding'} ) {
+        my $res_content_type = $c->response->content_type;
+        $res_content_type .= '; charset=' . $config->{'encoding'};
+        $c->response->content_type( $res_content_type );
+    }
+
     return $sclass, $sarg, $content_type;
 }