diff --git a/pkgs/tools/misc/man/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/misc/man/default.nix
index 490aa4606ab..b718e3c1289 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/misc/man/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/misc/man/default.nix
@@ -19,6 +19,15 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation {
     ./share.patch
   ];
 
+  postInstall =
+    ''
+      # Use UTF-8 by default.  Otherwise man won't know how to deal
+      # with certain characters.
+      substituteInPlace $out/lib/man.conf \
+        --replace "nroff -Tlatin1" "nroff" \
+        --replace "eqn -Tlatin1" "eqn -Tutf8"
+    '';
+
   meta = {
     homepage = http://primates.ximian.com/~flucifredi/man/;
     description = "Tool to read online Unix documentation";