diff --git "a/gettext-runtime/intl/loadmsgcat.c" "b/gettext-runtime/intl/loadmsgcat.c"
index 63351523..c078de3f 100644
--- a/gettext-runtime/intl/loadmsgcat.c
+++ b/gettext-runtime/intl/loadmsgcat.c
@@ -477,6 +477,55 @@ char *alloca ();
 # define munmap(addr, len)	__munmap (addr, len)
 #endif
 
+#ifdef _WIN32
+/* Provide wrapper of "open" for Windows that supports UTF-8 filenames. */
+# ifndef WIN32_LEAN_AND_MEAN
+#  define WIN32_LEAN_AND_MEAN
+# endif
+# ifndef WIN32_EXTRA_LEAN
+#  define WIN32_EXTRA_LEAN
+# endif
+# undef NOMINMAX
+# define NOMINMAX
+# include <windows.h>	// For: MultiByteToWideChar
+# include <io.h>
+# include <wchar.h>
+
+int _open_utf8_windows_wrapper(
+   const char *filename,
+   int flags
+)
+{
+	int wstr_len = -1;
+	wchar_t* pUtf16FileName = NULL;
+	int fh = -1;
+
+	// on Windows, convert the filename from UTF-8 to UTF-16
+	wstr_len = MultiByteToWideChar(CP_UTF8, 0, filename, -1, NULL, 0);
+	if (wstr_len <= 0)
+	{
+		// MultiByteToWideChar failed
+		errno = ENOENT;
+		return -1;
+	}
+	pUtf16FileName = malloc(wstr_len * sizeof(wchar_t));
+	if (MultiByteToWideChar(CP_UTF8, 0, filename, -1, pUtf16FileName, wstr_len) == 0)
+	{
+		// MultiByteToWideChar failed
+		free(pUtf16FileName);
+		errno = ENOENT;
+		return -1;
+	}
+
+	// and call _wopen
+	fh = _wopen(pUtf16FileName, flags);
+
+	free(pUtf16FileName);
+	return fh;
+}
+# define open(name, flags)	_open_utf8_windows_wrapper(name, flags)
+#endif // #ifdef _WIN32
+
 /* For those losing systems which don't have `alloca' we have to add
    some additional code emulating it.  */
 #ifdef HAVE_ALLOCA
