diff --git a/src/main/java/net/snowflake/client/core/json/BytesConverter.java b/src/main/java/net/snowflake/client/core/json/BytesConverter.java
index 1600da0b9..eb1f80a5a 100644
--- a/src/main/java/net/snowflake/client/core/json/BytesConverter.java
+++ b/src/main/java/net/snowflake/client/core/json/BytesConverter.java
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 package net.snowflake.client.core.json;
 
 import java.nio.ByteBuffer;
-import java.nio.charset.Charset;
 import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import java.sql.Types;
 import net.snowflake.client.core.SFException;
@@ -54,7 +53,7 @@ public byte[] getBytes(Object obj, int columnType, int columnSubType, Integer sc
           return converters
               .getStringConverter()
               .getString(obj, columnType, columnSubType, scale)
-              .getBytes();
+              .getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
         case Types.BOOLEAN:
           return converters.getBooleanConverter().getBoolean(obj, columnType)
               ? new byte[] {1}
diff --git a/src/test/java/net/snowflake/client/jdbc/structuredtypes/StructuredTypesGetStringBaseIT.java b/src/test/java/net/snowflake/client/jdbc/structuredtypes/StructuredTypesGetStringBaseIT.java
index c8d18a051..392afd84b 100644
--- a/src/test/java/net/snowflake/client/jdbc/structuredtypes/StructuredTypesGetStringBaseIT.java
+++ b/src/test/java/net/snowflake/client/jdbc/structuredtypes/StructuredTypesGetStringBaseIT.java
@@ -1,9 +1,7 @@
 package net.snowflake.client.jdbc.structuredtypes;
 
-import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;
 
-import java.nio.charset.Charset;
 import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import java.sql.Connection;
 import java.sql.ResultSet;
@@ -69,9 +67,8 @@ protected void assertGetObjectIsCompatible(ResultSet resultSet, String expected)
 
   protected void assertGetBytesIsCompatible(ResultSet resultSet, String expected)
       throws SQLException {
-    assertEquals(StandardCharsets.UTF_8, Charset.defaultCharset());
     TestUtil.assertEqualsIgnoringWhitespace(
-        expected, new String(resultSet.getBytes(1)));
+        expected, new String(resultSet.getBytes(1), StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
   }
 
   protected void withFirstRow(