diff --git a/scripts/extract_odm_strings.py b/scripts/extract_odm_strings.py
index 22855ccd85..e9cddc41fc 100644
--- a/scripts/extract_odm_strings.py
+++ b/scripts/extract_odm_strings.py
@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ def get_opt_choices(opt):
                 f.write("\n")
             print("Wrote %s" % include_file)
 
-        argument_edit = Path(include_file).read_text()
+        argument_edit = Path(include_file).read_text(encoding='utf-8')
 
         kwargs = {
             'opt': opt_name,