diff --git a/pickledb.py b/pickledb.py
index 160b0d5..c0dce21 100644
--- a/pickledb.py
+++ b/pickledb.py
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ def dump(self):
     def _loaddb(self):
         '''Load or reload the json info from the file'''
         try: 
-            self.db = json.load(open(self.loco, 'rt'))
+            self.db = json.load(open(self.loco, 'rt', encoding='utf-8'))
         except ValueError:
             if os.stat(self.loco).st_size == 0:  # Error raised because file is empty
                 self.db = {}