diff --git a/json-path/src/main/java/com/jayway/jsonpath/JsonPath.java b/json-path/src/main/java/com/jayway/jsonpath/JsonPath.java
index 4dcc3490..3b2567da 100644
--- a/json-path/src/main/java/com/jayway/jsonpath/JsonPath.java
+++ b/json-path/src/main/java/com/jayway/jsonpath/JsonPath.java
@@ -259,7 +259,7 @@ public class JsonPath {
         InputStream in = null;
         try {
             in = HttpProviderFactory.getProvider().get(jsonURL);
-            return read(configuration.jsonProvider().parse(in), configuration);
+            return read(in, "UTF-8", configuration);
         } finally {
             Utils.closeQuietly(in);
         }
@@ -297,7 +297,7 @@ public class JsonPath {
         FileInputStream fis = null;
         try {
             fis = new FileInputStream(jsonFile);
-            return read(configuration.jsonProvider().parse(fis), configuration);
+            return read(fis, configuration);
         } finally {
             Utils.closeQuietly(fis);
         }
@@ -331,7 +331,29 @@ public class JsonPath {
         notNull(configuration, "configuration can not be null");
 
         try {
-            return read(configuration.jsonProvider().parse(jsonInputStream), configuration);
+            return read(jsonInputStream, "UTF-8", configuration);
+        } finally {
+            Utils.closeQuietly(jsonInputStream);
+        }
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Applies this JsonPath to the provided json input stream
+     *
+     * @param jsonInputStream input stream to read from
+     * @param configuration   configuration to use
+     * @param <T>             expected return type
+     * @return list of objects matched by the given path
+     * @throws IOException
+     */
+    @SuppressWarnings({"unchecked"})
+    public <T> T read(InputStream jsonInputStream, String charset, Configuration configuration) throws IOException {
+        notNull(jsonInputStream, "json input stream can not be null");
+        notNull(charset, "charset can not be null");
+        notNull(configuration, "configuration can not be null");
+
+        try {
+            return read(configuration.jsonProvider().parse(jsonInputStream, charset), configuration);
         } finally {
             Utils.closeQuietly(jsonInputStream);
         }
diff --git a/json-path/src/main/java/com/jayway/jsonpath/ParseContext.java b/json-path/src/main/java/com/jayway/jsonpath/ParseContext.java
index 1e73648e..8d7df718 100644
--- a/json-path/src/main/java/com/jayway/jsonpath/ParseContext.java
+++ b/json-path/src/main/java/com/jayway/jsonpath/ParseContext.java
@@ -27,6 +27,8 @@ public interface ParseContext {
 
     ReadContext parse(InputStream json);
 
+    ReadContext parse(InputStream json, String charset);
+
     ReadContext parse(File json) throws IOException;
 
     ReadContext parse(URL json) throws IOException;
diff --git a/json-path/src/main/java/com/jayway/jsonpath/internal/JsonReader.java b/json-path/src/main/java/com/jayway/jsonpath/internal/JsonReader.java
index 344f0e1a..79834ee6 100644
--- a/json-path/src/main/java/com/jayway/jsonpath/internal/JsonReader.java
+++ b/json-path/src/main/java/com/jayway/jsonpath/internal/JsonReader.java
@@ -51,8 +51,14 @@ public class JsonReader implements ParseContext, ReadContext {
 
     @Override
     public ReadContext parse(InputStream json) {
+        return parse(json, "UTF-8");
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public ReadContext parse(InputStream json, String charset) {
         notNull(json, "json input stream can not be null");
-        this.json = configuration.jsonProvider().parse(json);
+        notNull(json, "charset can not be null");
+        this.json = configuration.jsonProvider().parse(json, charset);
         return this;
     }
 
diff --git a/json-path/src/main/java/com/jayway/jsonpath/internal/spi/json/GsonJsonProvider.java b/json-path/src/main/java/com/jayway/jsonpath/internal/spi/json/GsonJsonProvider.java
index 6c73b86e..7fb38d16 100644
--- a/json-path/src/main/java/com/jayway/jsonpath/internal/spi/json/GsonJsonProvider.java
+++ b/json-path/src/main/java/com/jayway/jsonpath/internal/spi/json/GsonJsonProvider.java
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
 
 import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.io.InputStreamReader;
+import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
 import java.math.BigDecimal;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Collection;
@@ -83,8 +84,13 @@ public class GsonJsonProvider extends AbstractJsonProvider {
     }
 
     @Override
-    public Object parse(InputStream jsonStream) throws InvalidJsonException {
-        return parser.parse(new InputStreamReader(jsonStream));
+    public Object parse(InputStream jsonStream, String charset) throws InvalidJsonException {
+
+        try {
+            return parser.parse(new InputStreamReader(jsonStream, charset));
+        } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
+            throw new RuntimeException(e);
+        }
     }
 
     @Override
diff --git a/json-path/src/main/java/com/jayway/jsonpath/internal/spi/json/JacksonJsonProvider.java b/json-path/src/main/java/com/jayway/jsonpath/internal/spi/json/JacksonJsonProvider.java
index d989262d..68c11685 100644
--- a/json-path/src/main/java/com/jayway/jsonpath/internal/spi/json/JacksonJsonProvider.java
+++ b/json-path/src/main/java/com/jayway/jsonpath/internal/spi/json/JacksonJsonProvider.java
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStream;
+import java.io.InputStreamReader;
 import java.io.StringWriter;
 import java.util.LinkedList;
 import java.util.List;
@@ -77,9 +78,9 @@ public class JacksonJsonProvider extends AbstractJsonProvider {
     }
 
     @Override
-    public Object parse(InputStream jsonStream) throws InvalidJsonException {
+    public Object parse(InputStream jsonStream, String charset) throws InvalidJsonException {
         try {
-            return objectReader.readValue(jsonStream);
+            return objectReader.readValue(new InputStreamReader(jsonStream, charset));
         } catch (IOException e) {
             throw new InvalidJsonException(e);
         }
diff --git a/json-path/src/main/java/com/jayway/jsonpath/internal/spi/json/JsonSmartJsonProvider.java b/json-path/src/main/java/com/jayway/jsonpath/internal/spi/json/JsonSmartJsonProvider.java
index 85394137..77b9499a 100644
--- a/json-path/src/main/java/com/jayway/jsonpath/internal/spi/json/JsonSmartJsonProvider.java
+++ b/json-path/src/main/java/com/jayway/jsonpath/internal/spi/json/JsonSmartJsonProvider.java
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ import net.minidev.json.parser.ParseException;
 
 import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.io.InputStreamReader;
+import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
 
@@ -55,11 +56,13 @@ public class JsonSmartJsonProvider extends AbstractJsonProvider {
     }
 
     @Override
-    public Object parse(InputStream jsonStream) throws InvalidJsonException {
+    public Object parse(InputStream jsonStream, String charset) throws InvalidJsonException {
         try {
-            return createParser().parse(new InputStreamReader(jsonStream), orderedMapper);
+            return createParser().parse(new InputStreamReader(jsonStream, charset), orderedMapper);
         } catch (ParseException e) {
             throw new InvalidJsonException(e);
+        } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
+            throw new RuntimeException(e);
         }
     }
 
diff --git a/json-path/src/main/java/com/jayway/jsonpath/spi/json/JsonProvider.java b/json-path/src/main/java/com/jayway/jsonpath/spi/json/JsonProvider.java
index e5ac92fc..e5c40ab8 100644
--- a/json-path/src/main/java/com/jayway/jsonpath/spi/json/JsonProvider.java
+++ b/json-path/src/main/java/com/jayway/jsonpath/spi/json/JsonProvider.java
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ public interface JsonProvider {
 
     Object parse(String json) throws InvalidJsonException;
 
-    Object parse(InputStream jsonStream) throws InvalidJsonException;
+    Object parse(InputStream jsonStream, String charset) throws InvalidJsonException;
 
     String toJson(Object obj);