diff --git a/src/Semantic/Git.hs b/src/Semantic/Git.hs
index 903023c52..954365184 100644
--- a/src/Semantic/Git.hs
+++ b/src/Semantic/Git.hs
@@ -22,7 +22,6 @@ import Data.Char
 import Data.Either            (fromRight)
 import Data.Text              as Text
 import Shelly                 hiding (FilePath)
-import System.IO              (hSetBinaryMode)
 
 -- | git clone --bare
 clone :: Text -> FilePath -> IO ()
@@ -39,7 +38,7 @@ lsTree :: FilePath -> OID -> IO [TreeEntry]
 lsTree gitDir (OID sha) = sh $ parseEntries <$> run "git" ["-C", pack gitDir, "ls-tree", "-rz", sha]
 
 sh :: MonadIO m => Sh a -> m a
-sh = shelly . silently . onCommandHandles (initOutputHandles (`hSetBinaryMode` True))
+sh = shelly . silently
 
 -- | Parses an list of entries separated by \NUL, and on failure return []
 parseEntries :: Text -> [TreeEntry]
diff --git a/test/Semantic/IO/Spec.hs b/test/Semantic/IO/Spec.hs
index 5adccbb34..35ccc66c5 100644
--- a/test/Semantic/IO/Spec.hs
+++ b/test/Semantic/IO/Spec.hs
@@ -1,20 +1,23 @@
+{-# LANGUAGE OverloadedStrings #-}
+
 module Semantic.IO.Spec (spec) where
 
 import Prelude hiding (readFile)
 
-import Control.Monad.IO.Class
-import Data.List
-import System.Directory
-import System.IO.Temp
-import Data.String
+import           Control.Monad.IO.Class
+import           Data.List
+import           Data.String
+import qualified Data.Text as Text
+import           System.Directory
+import           System.IO.Temp
 
-import Data.Blob
-import Data.Handle
-import SpecHelpers hiding (readFile)
+import           Data.Blob
+import           Data.Handle
 import qualified Semantic.Git as Git
-import Shelly (shelly, silently, cd, run_)
+import           Shelly (cd, run_, shelly, silently, touchfile, writefile)
+import           SpecHelpers hiding (readFile)
+import           System.Path ((</>))
 import qualified System.Path as Path
-import System.Path ((</>))
 
 
 makeGitRepo :: FilePath -> IO ()
@@ -22,14 +25,25 @@ makeGitRepo dir = shelly . silently $ do
   cd (fromString dir)
   let git = run_ "git"
   git ["init"]
-  run_ "touch" ["foo.py", "bar.rb"]
-  git ["add", "foo.py", "bar.rb"]
+  touchfile "bar.py"
+  writefile "日本語.rb" "# coding: utf-8\n日本語 = 'hello'"
+  git ["add", "日本語.rb", "bar.py"]
   git ["config", "user.name", "'Test'"]
   git ["config", "user.email", "'test@test.test'"]
   git ["commit", "-am", "'test commit'"]
 
 spec :: Spec
 spec = do
+  describe "catFile" $ do
+    hasGit <- runIO $ isJust <$> findExecutable "git"
+    when hasGit . it "should not corrupt the output of files with UTF-8 identifiers" $ do
+      result <- liftIO . withSystemTempDirectory "semantic-temp-git-repo" $ \dir -> do
+        makeGitRepo dir
+        trees <- Git.lsTree (dir <> "/.git") (Git.OID "HEAD")
+        Just it <- pure $ find (\p -> "日本語" `isInfixOf` Git.treeEntryPath p) trees
+        Git.catFile (dir <> "/.git") (Git.treeEntryOid it)
+      ("日本語" `Text.isInfixOf` result) `shouldBe` True
+
   describe "lsTree" $ do
     hasGit <- runIO $ isJust <$> findExecutable "git"
     when hasGit . it "should read all tree entries from a repo" $ do
@@ -47,8 +61,8 @@ spec = do
         makeGitRepo dir
         readBlobsFromGitRepoPath (Path.absDir dir </> Path.relDir ".git") (Git.OID "HEAD") [] []
       let files = sortOn fileLanguage (blobFile <$> blobs)
-      files `shouldBe` [ File "foo.py" Python
-                       , File "bar.rb" Ruby
+      files `shouldBe` [ File "bar.py" Python
+                       , File "日本語.rb" Ruby
                        ]
 
     when hasGit . it "should read from a git directory with --only" $ do
@@ -56,18 +70,18 @@ spec = do
       blobs <- liftIO . withSystemTempDirectory "semantic-temp-git-repo" $ \dir -> do
         let pdir = Path.absDir dir
         makeGitRepo dir
-        readBlobsFromGitRepoPath (pdir </> Path.relDir ".git") (Git.OID "HEAD") [] [Path.relFile "foo.py"]
+        readBlobsFromGitRepoPath (pdir </> Path.relDir ".git") (Git.OID "HEAD") [] [Path.relFile "日本語.rb"]
       let files = sortOn fileLanguage (blobFile <$> blobs)
-      files `shouldBe` [ File "foo.py" Python ]
+      files `shouldBe` [ File "日本語.rb" Ruby ]
 
     when hasGit . it "should read from a git directory with --exclude" $ do
       -- This temporary directory will be cleaned after use.
       blobs <- liftIO . withSystemTempDirectory "semantic-temp-git-repo" $ \dir -> do
         makeGitRepo dir
 
-        readBlobsFromGitRepoPath (Path.absDir dir </> Path.relDir ".git") (Git.OID "HEAD") [Path.relFile "foo.py"] []
+        readBlobsFromGitRepoPath (Path.absDir dir </> Path.relDir ".git") (Git.OID "HEAD") [Path.relFile "日本語.rb"] []
       let files = sortOn fileLanguage (blobFile <$> blobs)
-      files `shouldBe` [ File "bar.rb" Ruby ]
+      files `shouldBe` [ File "bar.py" Python ]
 
   describe "readFile" $ do
     it "returns a blob for extant files" $ do
diff --git a/test/Tags/Spec.hs b/test/Tags/Spec.hs
index bd79c877e..90c235805 100644
--- a/test/Tags/Spec.hs
+++ b/test/Tags/Spec.hs
@@ -85,6 +85,11 @@ spec = do
       runTagging blob symbolsToSummarize tree `shouldBe`
         [ Tag "foo" Method (Span (Pos 2 1) (Pos 3 4)) "def foo" (Just "# Public: foo") ]
 
+    it "correctly tags files containing multibyte UTF-8 characters" $ do
+      (blob, tree) <- parseTestFile rubyParser (Path.relFile "test/fixtures/ruby/tags/unicode_identifiers.rb")
+      runTagging blob symbolsToSummarize tree `shouldBe`
+        [ Tag "日本語" Method (Span (Pos 2 1) (Pos 4 4)) "def 日本語" (Just "# coding: utf-8")]
+
     it "produces tags for methods and classes with docs" $ do
       (blob, tree) <- parseTestFile rubyParser (Path.relFile "test/fixtures/ruby/tags/class_module.rb")
       runTagging blob symbolsToSummarize tree `shouldBe`
diff --git a/test/fixtures/ruby/tags/unicode_identifiers.rb b/test/fixtures/ruby/tags/unicode_identifiers.rb
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..50a42b0a0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/fixtures/ruby/tags/unicode_identifiers.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+# coding: utf-8
+def 日本語
+  "hello"
+end