diff --git a/java/demo/pom.xml b/java/demo/pom.xml
index 51fa07b9b..803f82ac3 100644
--- a/java/demo/pom.xml
+++ b/java/demo/pom.xml
@@ -26,7 +26,8 @@
         <version>2.3.2</version>
         <configuration>
           <source>1.6</source>
-          <target>1.6</target>
+	  <target>1.6</target>
+	  <encoding>UTF-8</encoding>
         </configuration>
       </plugin>
       <plugin>
diff --git a/java/pom.xml b/java/pom.xml
index 7543f59d0..31e17f928 100644
--- a/java/pom.xml
+++ b/java/pom.xml
@@ -161,8 +161,9 @@
         <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
         <version>2.3.2</version>
         <configuration>
-          <source>1.5</source>
-          <target>1.5</target>
+          <source>1.6</source>
+	  <target>1.6</target>
+	  <encoding>UTF-8</encoding>
         </configuration>
       </plugin>
       <plugin>
diff --git a/tools/java/common/pom.xml b/tools/java/common/pom.xml
index 0273d6521..7cc582445 100644
--- a/tools/java/common/pom.xml
+++ b/tools/java/common/pom.xml
@@ -29,8 +29,9 @@
         <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
         <version>2.0.2</version>
         <configuration>
-          <source>1.5</source>
-          <target>1.5</target>
+          <source>1.6</source>
+	  <target>1.6</target>
+	  <encoding>UTF-8</encoding>
         </configuration>
       </plugin>
       <!-- Add ../../../java/libphonenumber/src/ to make Phonemetadata.java available to the source
diff --git a/tools/java/cpp-build/pom.xml b/tools/java/cpp-build/pom.xml
index 2c43bd943..6d1b663fc 100644
--- a/tools/java/cpp-build/pom.xml
+++ b/tools/java/cpp-build/pom.xml
@@ -27,8 +27,9 @@
         <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
         <version>2.0.2</version>
         <configuration>
-          <source>1.5</source>
-          <target>1.5</target>
+          <source>1.6</source>
+	  <target>1.6</target>
+	  <encoding>UTF-8</encoding>
         </configuration>
       </plugin>
       <!-- Create a directory called 'generated'. -->
diff --git a/tools/java/cpp-build/target/cpp-build-1.0-SNAPSHOT-jar-with-dependencies.jar b/tools/java/cpp-build/target/cpp-build-1.0-SNAPSHOT-jar-with-dependencies.jar
index e6a288e76..f4ce7672e 100644
Binary files a/tools/java/cpp-build/target/cpp-build-1.0-SNAPSHOT-jar-with-dependencies.jar and b/tools/java/cpp-build/target/cpp-build-1.0-SNAPSHOT-jar-with-dependencies.jar differ
diff --git a/tools/java/data/pom.xml b/tools/java/data/pom.xml
index 77aeca15f..3630216dd 100644
--- a/tools/java/data/pom.xml
+++ b/tools/java/data/pom.xml
@@ -50,7 +50,8 @@
         <version>2.0.2</version>
         <configuration>
           <source>1.6</source>
-          <target>1.6</target>
+	  <target>1.6</target>
+	  <encoding>UTF-8</encoding>
         </configuration>
       </plugin>
       <plugin>
diff --git a/tools/java/java-build/pom.xml b/tools/java/java-build/pom.xml
index 76615a296..2bf22eeef 100644
--- a/tools/java/java-build/pom.xml
+++ b/tools/java/java-build/pom.xml
@@ -49,8 +49,9 @@
         <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
         <version>2.0.2</version>
         <configuration>
-          <source>1.5</source>
-          <target>1.5</target>
+          <source>1.6</source>
+	  <target>1.6</target>
+	  <encoding>UTF-8</encoding>
         </configuration>
       </plugin>
       <plugin>
diff --git a/tools/java/java-build/target/java-build-1.0-SNAPSHOT-jar-with-dependencies.jar b/tools/java/java-build/target/java-build-1.0-SNAPSHOT-jar-with-dependencies.jar
index 4efc3e41d..0852679e3 100644
Binary files a/tools/java/java-build/target/java-build-1.0-SNAPSHOT-jar-with-dependencies.jar and b/tools/java/java-build/target/java-build-1.0-SNAPSHOT-jar-with-dependencies.jar differ