diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/BUILD b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/BUILD
index e8832fd32de22a..4bc092f4f4ee6b 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/BUILD
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/BUILD
@@ -1482,7 +1482,6 @@ java_library(
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/actions:artifacts",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/actions:commandline_item",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/collect/nestedset",
-        "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/unsafe:string",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/util",
         "//src/main/java/net/starlark/java/eval",
         "//third_party:jsr305",
@@ -1499,7 +1498,6 @@ java_library(
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/actions:artifact_expander",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/actions:artifacts",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/collect/nestedset",
-        "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/unsafe:string",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/util",
         "//third_party:guava",
         "//third_party:jsr305",
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/ConfiguredRuleClassProvider.java b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/ConfiguredRuleClassProvider.java
index 564309c487f868..df527b31de764f 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/ConfiguredRuleClassProvider.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/ConfiguredRuleClassProvider.java
@@ -53,7 +53,6 @@
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.packages.RuleTransitionData;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.packages.WorkspaceFactory;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.starlarkbuildapi.core.Bootstrap;
-import com.google.devtools.build.lib.unsafe.StringUnsafe;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.vfs.DigestHashFunction;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.vfs.Path;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.vfs.PathFragment;
@@ -132,10 +131,7 @@ protected synchronized byte[] getFastDigest(PathFragment path) {
 
     @Override
     protected synchronized byte[] getDigest(PathFragment path) {
-      return getDigestFunction()
-          .getHashFunction()
-          .hashBytes(StringUnsafe.getInstance().getInternalStringBytes(path.getPathString()))
-          .asBytes();
+      return getDigestFunction().getHashFunction().hashString(path.toString(), UTF_8).asBytes();
     }
   }
 
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/RepoMappingManifestAction.java b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/RepoMappingManifestAction.java
index 6d903571edc1ef..f4b724886be784 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/RepoMappingManifestAction.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/RepoMappingManifestAction.java
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 import static com.google.common.collect.ImmutableList.toImmutableList;
 import static com.google.common.collect.ImmutableSortedMap.toImmutableSortedMap;
 import static java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets.ISO_8859_1;
+import static java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets.UTF_8;
 import static java.util.Comparator.comparing;
 
 import com.github.benmanes.caffeine.cache.Caffeine;
@@ -145,7 +146,7 @@ protected void computeKey(
   public String getFileContents(@Nullable EventHandler eventHandler) throws IOException {
     ByteArrayOutputStream stream = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
     newDeterministicWriter().writeOutputFile(stream);
-    return stream.toString(ISO_8859_1);
+    return stream.toString(UTF_8);
   }
 
   @Override
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/SourceManifestAction.java b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/SourceManifestAction.java
index e95d3921dec0b7..b1cf17f6dba355 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/SourceManifestAction.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/SourceManifestAction.java
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 
 import static com.google.common.collect.ImmutableList.toImmutableList;
 import static java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets.ISO_8859_1;
+import static java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets.UTF_8;
 
 import com.google.common.annotations.VisibleForTesting;
 import com.google.common.collect.ImmutableList;
@@ -217,7 +218,7 @@ public void writeOutputFile(OutputStream out, @Nullable EventHandler eventHandle
   public String getFileContents(@Nullable EventHandler eventHandler) throws IOException {
     ByteArrayOutputStream stream = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
     writeOutputFile(stream, eventHandler);
-    return stream.toString(ISO_8859_1);
+    return stream.toString(UTF_8);
   }
 
   @Override
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/actions/LazyWriteNestedSetOfTupleAction.java b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/actions/LazyWriteNestedSetOfTupleAction.java
index 6bd98ea17edf37..8958b5e2aee2ab 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/actions/LazyWriteNestedSetOfTupleAction.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/actions/LazyWriteNestedSetOfTupleAction.java
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 
 package com.google.devtools.build.lib.analysis.actions;
 
+import static java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets.UTF_8;
 
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.actions.ActionExecutionContext;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.actions.ActionKeyContext;
@@ -24,7 +25,6 @@
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.collect.nestedset.NestedSet;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.collect.nestedset.NestedSetBuilder;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.collect.nestedset.Order;
-import com.google.devtools.build.lib.unsafe.StringUnsafe;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.util.Fingerprint;
 import javax.annotation.Nullable;
 import net.starlark.java.eval.Tuple;
@@ -49,8 +49,7 @@ public LazyWriteNestedSetOfTupleAction(
 
   @Override
   public DeterministicWriter newDeterministicWriter(ActionExecutionContext ctx) {
-    return out ->
-        out.write(StringUnsafe.getInstance().getInternalStringBytes(getContents(delimiter)));
+    return out -> out.write(getContents(delimiter).getBytes(UTF_8));
   }
 
   /** Computes the Action key for this action by computing the fingerprint for the file contents. */
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/actions/LazyWritePathsFileAction.java b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/actions/LazyWritePathsFileAction.java
index 2e24dc3d0d6ee1..e27d03b48eac12 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/actions/LazyWritePathsFileAction.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/actions/LazyWritePathsFileAction.java
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 
 package com.google.devtools.build.lib.analysis.actions;
 
+import static java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets.UTF_8;
 
 import com.google.common.collect.ImmutableSet;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.actions.ActionExecutionContext;
@@ -25,7 +26,6 @@
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.collect.nestedset.NestedSet;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.collect.nestedset.NestedSetBuilder;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.collect.nestedset.Order;
-import com.google.devtools.build.lib.unsafe.StringUnsafe;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.util.Fingerprint;
 import java.util.function.Function;
 import javax.annotation.Nullable;
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ public LazyWritePathsFileAction(
 
   @Override
   public DeterministicWriter newDeterministicWriter(ActionExecutionContext ctx) {
-    return out -> out.write(StringUnsafe.getInstance().getInternalStringBytes(getContents()));
+    return out -> out.write(getContents().getBytes(UTF_8));
   }
 
   /** Computes the Action key for this action by computing the fingerprint for the file contents. */
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/actions/LocalTemplateExpansionStrategy.java b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/actions/LocalTemplateExpansionStrategy.java
index 93396ad2923fb9..2c288480127756 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/actions/LocalTemplateExpansionStrategy.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/actions/LocalTemplateExpansionStrategy.java
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
 
 package com.google.devtools.build.lib.analysis.actions;
 
-import static java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets.ISO_8859_1;
+import static java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets.UTF_8;
 
 import com.google.common.collect.ImmutableList;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.actions.AbstractAction;
@@ -47,8 +47,7 @@ public ImmutableList<SpawnResult> expandTemplate(
       final String expandedTemplate =
           getExpandedTemplateUnsafe(
               templateMetadata.template(), templateMetadata.substitutions(), ctx.getPathResolver());
-      DeterministicWriter deterministicWriter =
-          out -> out.write(expandedTemplate.getBytes(ISO_8859_1));
+      DeterministicWriter deterministicWriter = out -> out.write(expandedTemplate.getBytes(UTF_8));
       return ctx.getContext(FileWriteActionContext.class)
           .writeOutputToFile(
               action,
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/actions/StarlarkAction.java b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/actions/StarlarkAction.java
index ecf92e4768fb04..c6df48534c8e04 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/actions/StarlarkAction.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/actions/StarlarkAction.java
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@
 // limitations under the License.
 package com.google.devtools.build.lib.analysis.actions;
 
-import static java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets.ISO_8859_1;
+import static java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets.UTF_8;
 
 import com.google.common.annotations.VisibleForTesting;
 import com.google.common.collect.ImmutableMap;
@@ -349,13 +349,10 @@ protected void afterExecute(
       for (Artifact input : allInputs.toList()) {
         usedInputsByMappedPath.put(pathMapper.getMappedExecPathString(input), input);
       }
-      // Bazel encodes file system paths as raw bytes stored in a Latin-1 encoded string, so we need
-      // to make sure to also decode the unused input list as Latin-1.
       try (BufferedReader br =
           new BufferedReader(
               new InputStreamReader(
-                  getUnusedInputListInputStream(actionExecutionContext, spawnResults),
-                  ISO_8859_1))) {
+                  getUnusedInputListInputStream(actionExecutionContext, spawnResults), UTF_8))) {
         String line;
         while ((line = br.readLine()) != null) {
           line = line.trim();
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/actions/Template.java b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/actions/Template.java
index 40a856c473c745..3cc16afd28166a 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/actions/Template.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/actions/Template.java
@@ -14,8 +14,6 @@
 
 package com.google.devtools.build.lib.analysis.actions;
 
-import static java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets.ISO_8859_1;
-
 import com.google.common.annotations.VisibleForTesting;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.actions.Artifact;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.actions.ArtifactPathResolver;
@@ -24,12 +22,16 @@
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.vfs.FileSystemUtils;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.vfs.Path;
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.nio.charset.Charset;
+import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import javax.annotation.Nullable;
 
 /** A template that contains text content, or alternatively throws an {@link IOException}. */
 @Immutable // all subclasses are immutable
 public abstract class Template {
 
+  static final Charset DEFAULT_CHARSET = StandardCharsets.UTF_8;
+
   /** We only allow subclasses in this file. */
   private Template() {}
 
@@ -103,8 +105,7 @@ private static final class ArtifactTemplate extends Template {
     public String getContent(ArtifactPathResolver resolver) throws IOException {
       Path templatePath = resolver.toPath(templateArtifact);
       try {
-        // Bazel's internal encoding for strings is raw bytes as Latin-1
-        return FileSystemUtils.readContent(templatePath, ISO_8859_1);
+        return FileSystemUtils.readContent(templatePath, DEFAULT_CHARSET);
       } catch (IOException e) {
         throw new IOException(
             "failed to load template file '"
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/starlark/StarlarkActionFactory.java b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/starlark/StarlarkActionFactory.java
index fde094bf65f097..60d263dba8f5b5 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/starlark/StarlarkActionFactory.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/starlark/StarlarkActionFactory.java
@@ -977,8 +977,13 @@ public void expandTemplate(
     ImmutableMap.Builder<String, Substitution> substitutionsBuilder = ImmutableMap.builder();
     for (Map.Entry<String, String> substitution :
         Dict.cast(substitutionsUnchecked, String.class, String.class, "substitutions").entrySet()) {
+      // Blaze calls ParserInput.fromLatin1 when reading BUILD files, which might
+      // contain UTF-8 encoded symbols as part of template substitution.
+      // As a quick fix, the substitution values are corrected before being passed on.
+      // In the long term, avoiding ParserInput.fromLatin would be a better approach.
       substitutionsBuilder.put(
-          substitution.getKey(), Substitution.of(substitution.getKey(), substitution.getValue()));
+          substitution.getKey(),
+          Substitution.of(substitution.getKey(), convertLatin1ToUtf8(substitution.getValue())));
     }
     if (!Starlark.UNBOUND.equals(computedSubstitutions)) {
       for (Substitution substitution : ((TemplateDict) computedSubstitutions).getAll()) {
@@ -1002,6 +1007,16 @@ public void expandTemplate(
     registerAction(action);
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Returns the proper UTF-8 representation of a String that was erroneously read using Latin1.
+   *
+   * @param latin1 Input string
+   * @return The input string, UTF8 encoded
+   */
+  private static String convertLatin1ToUtf8(String latin1) {
+    return new String(latin1.getBytes(StandardCharsets.ISO_8859_1), StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
+  }
+
   @Override
   public Args args(StarlarkThread thread) {
     return Args.newArgs(thread.mutability(), getSemantics());
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/authandtls/BUILD b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/authandtls/BUILD
index 8ecbc9f277190a..bea95405f9a646 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/authandtls/BUILD
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/authandtls/BUILD
@@ -21,7 +21,6 @@ java_library(
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/authandtls/credentialhelper",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/concurrent",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/events",
-        "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/unsafe:string",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/vfs",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/common/options",
         "//third_party:auth",
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/authandtls/BasicHttpAuthenticationEncoder.java b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/authandtls/BasicHttpAuthenticationEncoder.java
index 244aaa75f0b93f..a4a4f453b9f7bf 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/authandtls/BasicHttpAuthenticationEncoder.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/authandtls/BasicHttpAuthenticationEncoder.java
@@ -13,7 +13,8 @@
 // limitations under the License.
 package com.google.devtools.build.lib.authandtls;
 
-import com.google.devtools.build.lib.unsafe.StringUnsafe;
+import com.google.common.base.Strings;
+import java.nio.charset.Charset;
 import java.util.Base64;
 
 /**
@@ -25,18 +26,16 @@ public final class BasicHttpAuthenticationEncoder {
 
   private BasicHttpAuthenticationEncoder() {}
 
-  /**
-   * Encode username and password into a token.
-   *
-   * <p>username and password are expected to use Bazel's internal string encoding. The returned
-   * string is a regular Unicode string.
-   */
-  public static String encode(String username, String password) {
-    // The raw bytes in the internal string are assumed to be UTF-8, which is the encoding used for
-    // basic authentication.
-    return "Basic "
-        + Base64.getEncoder()
-            .encodeToString(
-                StringUnsafe.getInstance().getInternalStringBytes(username + ":" + password));
+  /** Encode username and password into a token with given {@link Charset}. */
+  public static String encode(String username, String password, Charset charset) {
+    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
+    if (!Strings.isNullOrEmpty(username)) {
+      sb.append(username);
+    }
+    sb.append(":");
+    if (!Strings.isNullOrEmpty(password)) {
+      sb.append(password);
+    }
+    return "Basic " + Base64.getEncoder().encodeToString(sb.toString().getBytes(charset));
   }
 }
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/authandtls/NetrcCredentials.java b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/authandtls/NetrcCredentials.java
index bc40512d659a63..ee15a91b9f9422 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/authandtls/NetrcCredentials.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/authandtls/NetrcCredentials.java
@@ -13,6 +13,8 @@
 // limitations under the License.
 package com.google.devtools.build.lib.authandtls;
 
+import static java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets.UTF_8;
+
 import com.google.auth.Credentials;
 import com.google.common.collect.ImmutableList;
 import com.google.common.collect.ImmutableMap;
@@ -56,7 +58,7 @@ public Map<String, List<String>> getRequestMetadata(URI uri) throws IOException
     Credential credential = netrc.getCredential(uri.getHost());
     if (credential != null) {
       String token =
-          BasicHttpAuthenticationEncoder.encode(credential.login(), credential.password());
+          BasicHttpAuthenticationEncoder.encode(credential.login(), credential.password(), UTF_8);
       return ImmutableMap.of("Authorization", ImmutableList.of(token));
     } else {
       return ImmutableMap.of();
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/authandtls/NetrcParser.java b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/authandtls/NetrcParser.java
index a1f45e00dde6c3..5bf080d9e0b7ce 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/authandtls/NetrcParser.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/authandtls/NetrcParser.java
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
 package com.google.devtools.build.lib.authandtls;
 
 import static com.google.common.base.Predicates.not;
-import static java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets.ISO_8859_1;
+import static java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets.UTF_8;
 import static java.util.Objects.requireNonNull;
 
 import com.google.common.base.Strings;
@@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ private static class TokenStream implements Closeable {
     private final Queue<Token> tokens = new ArrayDeque<>();
 
     TokenStream(InputStream inputStream) throws IOException {
-      bufferedReader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(inputStream, ISO_8859_1));
+      bufferedReader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(inputStream, UTF_8));
       processLine();
     }
 
@@ -183,7 +183,8 @@ private static Credential parseCredentialForMachine(TokenStream tokenStream, Str
     while (!done && tokenStream.hasNext()) {
       // Peek rather than taking next token since we probably won't process it
       Token token = tokenStream.peek();
-      if (token instanceof ItemToken(String item)) {
+      if (token instanceof ItemToken itemToken) {
+        String item = itemToken.item();
         switch (item) {
           case LOGIN -> {
             tokenStream.next();
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/bzlmod/BUILD b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/bzlmod/BUILD
index 9127d464f26a9a..37bde3ca91e61b 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/bzlmod/BUILD
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/bzlmod/BUILD
@@ -259,7 +259,6 @@ java_library(
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/skyframe:package_lookup_function",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/skyframe:package_lookup_value",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/skyframe:precomputed_value",
-        "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/util:string_encoding",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/vfs",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/vfs:pathfragment",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/vfs/inmemoryfs",
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/bzlmod/VendorFileFunction.java b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/bzlmod/VendorFileFunction.java
index aaba70a5ffdf89..07eb48edd23d00 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/bzlmod/VendorFileFunction.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/bzlmod/VendorFileFunction.java
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
 
 package com.google.devtools.build.lib.bazel.bzlmod;
 
-import static java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets.ISO_8859_1;
+import static java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets.UTF_8;
 
 import com.google.common.collect.ImmutableList;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.actions.FileValue;
@@ -25,7 +25,6 @@
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.packages.VendorThreadContext;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.rules.repository.RepositoryDelegatorFunction;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.skyframe.PrecomputedValue;
-import com.google.devtools.build.lib.util.StringEncoding;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.vfs.FileSystemUtils;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.vfs.Path;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.vfs.Root;
@@ -55,8 +54,7 @@
 public class VendorFileFunction implements SkyFunction {
 
   private static final String VENDOR_FILE_HEADER =
-      StringEncoding.unicodeToInternal(
-          """
+      """
 ###############################################################################
 # This file is used to configure how external repositories are handled in vendor mode.
 # ONLY the two following functions can be used:
@@ -69,7 +67,7 @@ public class VendorFileFunction implements SkyFunction {
 # Note that Bazel will NOT update the vendored source for this repo while running vendor command
 # unless it's unpinned. The user can modify and maintain the vendored source for this repo manually.
 ###############################################################################
-""");
+""";
 
   private final BazelStarlarkEnvironment starlarkEnv;
 
@@ -140,7 +138,8 @@ private void createVendorFile(Path vendorPath, Path vendorFilePath)
       throws VendorFileFunctionException {
     try {
       vendorPath.createDirectoryAndParents();
-      FileSystemUtils.writeContent(vendorFilePath, ISO_8859_1, VENDOR_FILE_HEADER);
+      byte[] vendorFileContents = VENDOR_FILE_HEADER.getBytes(UTF_8);
+      FileSystemUtils.writeContent(vendorFilePath, vendorFileContents);
     } catch (IOException e) {
       throw new VendorFileFunctionException(
           new IOException("error creating VENDOR.bazel file", e), Transience.TRANSIENT);
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/repository/RepositoryResolvedModule.java b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/repository/RepositoryResolvedModule.java
index 97940ed169d1d7..84b9ec714d6d0b 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/repository/RepositoryResolvedModule.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/repository/RepositoryResolvedModule.java
@@ -13,8 +13,6 @@
 // limitations under the License.
 package com.google.devtools.build.lib.bazel.repository;
 
-import static java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets.ISO_8859_1;
-
 import com.google.common.base.Strings;
 import com.google.common.collect.ImmutableList;
 import com.google.common.collect.ImmutableSet;
@@ -31,6 +29,7 @@
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.Writer;
+import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import java.util.LinkedHashMap;
 import java.util.Map;
 import net.starlark.java.eval.Printer;
@@ -82,7 +81,7 @@ public void afterCommand() {
       for (Object resolved : resolvedValues.values()) {
         resultBuilder.add(resolved);
       }
-      try (Writer writer = Files.newWriter(new File(resolvedFile), ISO_8859_1)) {
+      try (Writer writer = Files.newWriter(new File(resolvedFile), StandardCharsets.UTF_8)) {
         writer.write(EXPORTED_NAME + " = " + new ValuePrinter().repr(resultBuilder.build()));
       } catch (IOException e) {
         logger.atWarning().withCause(e).log("IO Error writing to file %s", resolvedFile);
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/repository/starlark/BUILD b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/repository/starlark/BUILD
index 7e9b206a718169..615d9d14dde7ae 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/repository/starlark/BUILD
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/repository/starlark/BUILD
@@ -48,7 +48,6 @@ java_library(
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/skyframe:precomputed_value",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/skyframe:repository_mapping_value",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/starlarkbuildapi/repository",
-        "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/unsafe:string",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/util",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/util:string",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/util/io:out-err",
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/repository/starlark/StarlarkBaseExternalContext.java b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/repository/starlark/StarlarkBaseExternalContext.java
index 737bfc781e3f35..2b98acad4af9b1 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/repository/starlark/StarlarkBaseExternalContext.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/repository/starlark/StarlarkBaseExternalContext.java
@@ -58,7 +58,6 @@
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.runtime.RepositoryRemoteExecutor;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.runtime.RepositoryRemoteExecutor.ExecutionResult;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.skyframe.ActionEnvironmentFunction;
-import com.google.devtools.build.lib.unsafe.StringUnsafe;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.util.OsUtils;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.util.io.OutErr;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.vfs.FileSystemUtils;
@@ -1364,17 +1363,23 @@ private static String renamedStripPrefix(String method, String stripPrefix, Stri
         @Param(
             name = "legacy_utf8",
             named = true,
-            defaultValue = "False",
+            defaultValue = "True",
             doc =
                 """
-                No-op. This parameter is deprecated and will be removed in a future version of \
-                Bazel.
+                Encode file content to UTF-8, true by default. Future versions will change \
+                the default and remove this parameter.
                 """),
       })
   public void createFile(
       Object path, String content, Boolean executable, Boolean legacyUtf8, StarlarkThread thread)
       throws RepositoryFunctionException, EvalException, InterruptedException {
     StarlarkPath p = getPath(path);
+    byte[] contentBytes;
+    if (legacyUtf8) {
+      contentBytes = content.getBytes(UTF_8);
+    } else {
+      contentBytes = content.getBytes(ISO_8859_1);
+    }
     WorkspaceRuleEvent w =
         WorkspaceRuleEvent.newFileEvent(
             p.toString(),
@@ -1388,7 +1393,7 @@ public void createFile(
       makeDirectories(p.getPath());
       p.getPath().delete();
       try (OutputStream stream = p.getPath().getOutputStream()) {
-        stream.write(StringUnsafe.getInstance().getInternalStringBytes(content));
+        stream.write(contentBytes);
       }
       if (executable) {
         p.getPath().setExecutable(true);
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/repository/starlark/StarlarkExecutionResult.java b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/repository/starlark/StarlarkExecutionResult.java
index d9b76819144a34..cf1d10de10f364 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/repository/starlark/StarlarkExecutionResult.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/repository/starlark/StarlarkExecutionResult.java
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@
 // limitations under the License.
 package com.google.devtools.build.lib.bazel.repository.starlark;
 
-import static java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets.ISO_8859_1;
+import static java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets.UTF_8;
 
 import com.google.common.base.Preconditions;
 import com.google.common.collect.Maps;
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@
 import java.util.Set;
 import net.starlark.java.annot.StarlarkBuiltin;
 import net.starlark.java.annot.StarlarkMethod;
+import net.starlark.java.eval.EvalException;
 import net.starlark.java.eval.StarlarkValue;
 
 /**
@@ -181,14 +182,14 @@ Builder setQuiet(boolean quiet) {
 
     private static String toString(ByteArrayOutputStream stream) {
       try {
-        return stream.toString(ISO_8859_1);
+        return new String(stream.toByteArray(), UTF_8);
       } catch (IllegalStateException e) {
         return "";
       }
     }
 
-    /** Execute the command specified by {@link #addArguments}. */
-    StarlarkExecutionResult execute() throws InterruptedException {
+    /** Execute the command specified by {@link #addArguments(Iterable)}. */
+    StarlarkExecutionResult execute() throws EvalException, InterruptedException {
       Preconditions.checkArgument(timeout > 0, "Timeout must be set prior to calling execute().");
       Preconditions.checkArgument(!args.isEmpty(), "No command specified.");
       Preconditions.checkState(!executed, "Command was already executed, cannot re-use builder.");
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/repository/starlark/StarlarkRepositoryContext.java b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/repository/starlark/StarlarkRepositoryContext.java
index 3cab859e9e31cf..05d6bc4a50b515 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/repository/starlark/StarlarkRepositoryContext.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/repository/starlark/StarlarkRepositoryContext.java
@@ -14,8 +14,6 @@
 
 package com.google.devtools.build.lib.bazel.repository.starlark;
 
-import static java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets.ISO_8859_1;
-
 import com.github.difflib.patch.PatchFailedException;
 import com.google.common.collect.ImmutableMap;
 import com.google.devtools.build.docgen.annot.DocCategory;
@@ -49,6 +47,7 @@
 import com.google.devtools.build.skyframe.SkyFunctionException.Transience;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.OutputStream;
+import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import java.nio.file.InvalidPathException;
 import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.Map;
@@ -323,16 +322,14 @@ public void createFileFromTemplate(
     try {
       checkInOutputDirectory("write", p);
       makeDirectories(p.getPath());
-      // Read and write files as raw bytes by using the Latin-1 encoding, which matches the encoding
-      // used by Bazel for strings.
-      String tpl = FileSystemUtils.readContent(t.getPath(), ISO_8859_1);
+      String tpl = FileSystemUtils.readContent(t.getPath(), StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
       for (Map.Entry<String, String> substitution : substitutionMap.entrySet()) {
         tpl =
             StringUtilities.replaceAllLiteral(tpl, substitution.getKey(), substitution.getValue());
       }
       p.getPath().delete();
       try (OutputStream stream = p.getPath().getOutputStream()) {
-        stream.write(tpl.getBytes(ISO_8859_1));
+        stream.write(tpl.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
       }
       if (executable) {
         p.getPath().setExecutable(true);
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/profiler/JsonProfile.java b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/profiler/JsonProfile.java
index 778214161fce27..5ed8a6de5a6caa 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/profiler/JsonProfile.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/profiler/JsonProfile.java
@@ -14,8 +14,6 @@
 
 package com.google.devtools.build.lib.profiler;
 
-import static java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets.ISO_8859_1;
-
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.profiler.statistics.PhaseSummaryStatistics;
 import com.google.gson.stream.JsonReader;
 import com.google.gson.stream.JsonToken;
@@ -25,6 +23,7 @@
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.io.InputStreamReader;
+import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import java.time.Duration;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.zip.GZIPInputStream;
@@ -47,7 +46,8 @@ public JsonProfile(File profileFile) throws IOException {
 
   public JsonProfile(InputStream inputStream) throws IOException {
     try (JsonReader reader =
-        new JsonReader(new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(inputStream, ISO_8859_1)))) {
+        new JsonReader(
+            new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(inputStream, StandardCharsets.UTF_8)))) {
       if (reader.peek() == JsonToken.BEGIN_OBJECT) {
         reader.beginObject();
         while (reader.hasNext()) {
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/profiler/JsonTraceFileWriter.java b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/profiler/JsonTraceFileWriter.java
index 2ab8881db77cd4..d73fa42380960f 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/profiler/JsonTraceFileWriter.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/profiler/JsonTraceFileWriter.java
@@ -13,8 +13,6 @@
 // limitations under the License.
 package com.google.devtools.build.lib.profiler;
 
-import static java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets.ISO_8859_1;
-
 import com.google.common.base.Preconditions;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.analysis.BlazeVersionInfo;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.profiler.Profiler.TaskData;
@@ -23,6 +21,7 @@
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.OutputStream;
 import java.io.OutputStreamWriter;
+import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import java.time.Duration;
 import java.time.Instant;
 import java.util.HashMap;
@@ -224,9 +223,8 @@ public void run() {
       try (JsonWriter writer =
           new JsonWriter(
               // The buffer size of 262144 is chosen at random.
-              // Bazel internally stores strings as raw bytes encoded in ISO_8859_1, so we use the
-              // same encoding here to also write out raw bytes.
-              new OutputStreamWriter(new BufferedOutputStream(outStream, 262144), ISO_8859_1))) {
+              new OutputStreamWriter(
+                  new BufferedOutputStream(outStream, 262144), StandardCharsets.UTF_8))) {
         var startDate = Instant.now();
         writer.beginObject();
         writer.name("otherData");
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/rules/cpp/BUILD b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/rules/cpp/BUILD
index f00a600daf5c7f..836bdc52f90d22 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/rules/cpp/BUILD
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/rules/cpp/BUILD
@@ -113,7 +113,6 @@ java_library(
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/util:os",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/util:shell_escaper",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/util:string",
-        "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/util:string_encoding",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/util/io",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/vfs",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/vfs:ospathpolicy",
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/rules/cpp/ShowIncludesFilter.java b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/rules/cpp/ShowIncludesFilter.java
index 46efc909977e65..e6804184fb707f 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/rules/cpp/ShowIncludesFilter.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/rules/cpp/ShowIncludesFilter.java
@@ -14,17 +14,14 @@
 
 package com.google.devtools.build.lib.rules.cpp;
 
-import static com.google.common.collect.ImmutableList.toImmutableList;
-import static java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets.ISO_8859_1;
-
 import com.google.common.annotations.VisibleForTesting;
 import com.google.common.collect.ImmutableList;
-import com.google.devtools.build.lib.util.StringEncoding;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.vfs.Path;
 import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
 import java.io.FilterOutputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.OutputStream;
+import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Collection;
 import java.util.Collections;
@@ -62,37 +59,94 @@ public static class FilterShowIncludesOutputStream extends FilterOutputStream {
     // cl.exe will print different prefix according to the locale configured for MSVC.
     private static final ImmutableList<String> SHOW_INCLUDES_PREFIXES =
         ImmutableList.of(
-                // English
-                "Note: including file:",
-                // Traditional Chinese
-                "注意: 包含檔案:",
-                // Czech
-                "Poznámka: Včetně souboru:",
-                // German
-                "Hinweis: Einlesen der Datei:",
-                // French (non-breaking spaces before the colons)
-                "Remarque : inclusion du fichier :",
-                // Italian (the missing : is intentional, this appears to be a bug in MSVC)
-                "Nota: file incluso",
-                // Japanese
-                "メモ: インクルード ファイル:",
-                // Korean
-                "참고: 포함 파일:",
-                // Polish
-                "Uwaga: w tym pliku:",
-                // Portuguese
-                "Observação: incluindo arquivo:",
-                // Russian
-                "Примечание: включение файла:",
-                // Turkish
-                "Not: eklenen dosya:",
-                // Simplified Chinese
-                "注意: 包含文件:",
-                // Spanish
-                "Nota: inclusión del archivo:")
-            .stream()
-            .map(StringEncoding::unicodeToInternal)
-            .collect(toImmutableList());
+            new String(
+                new byte[] {
+                  78, 111, 116, 101, 58, 32, 105, 110, 99, 108, 117, 100, 105, 110, 103, 32, 102,
+                  105, 108, 101, 58
+                },
+                StandardCharsets.UTF_8), // English
+            new String(
+                new byte[] {
+                  -26, -77, -88, -26, -124, -113, 58, 32, -27, -116, -123, -27, -112, -85, -26, -86,
+                  -108, -26, -95, -120, 58
+                },
+                StandardCharsets.UTF_8), // Traditional Chinese
+            new String(
+                new byte[] {
+                  80, 111, 122, 110, -61, -95, 109, 107, 97, 58, 32, 86, -60, -115, 101, 116, 110,
+                  -60, -101, 32, 115, 111, 117, 98, 111, 114, 117, 58
+                },
+                StandardCharsets.UTF_8), // Czech
+            new String(
+                new byte[] {
+                  72, 105, 110, 119, 101, 105, 115, 58, 32, 69, 105, 110, 108, 101, 115, 101, 110,
+                  32, 100, 101, 114, 32, 68, 97, 116, 101, 105, 58
+                },
+                StandardCharsets.UTF_8), // German
+            new String(
+                new byte[] {
+                  82, 101, 109, 97, 114, 113, 117, 101, -62, -96, 58, 32, 105, 110, 99, 108, 117,
+                  115, 105, 111, 110, 32, 100, 117, 32, 102, 105, 99, 104, 105, 101, 114, -62, -96,
+                  58
+                },
+                StandardCharsets.UTF_8), // French
+            new String(
+                new byte[] {
+                  78, 111, 116, 97, 58, 32, 102, 105, 108, 101, 32, 105, 110, 99, 108, 117, 115, 111
+                },
+                StandardCharsets.UTF_8), // Italian
+            new String(
+                new byte[] {
+                  -29, -125, -95, -29, -125, -94, 58, 32, -29, -126, -92, -29, -125, -77, -29, -126,
+                  -81, -29, -125, -85, -29, -125, -68, -29, -125, -119, 32, -29, -125, -107, -29,
+                  -126, -95, -29, -126, -92, -29, -125, -85, 58
+                },
+                StandardCharsets.UTF_8), // Janpanese
+            new String(
+                new byte[] {
+                  -20, -80, -72, -22, -77, -96, 58, 32, -19, -113, -84, -19, -107, -88, 32, -19,
+                  -116, -116, -20, -99, -68, 58
+                },
+                StandardCharsets.UTF_8), // Korean
+            new String(
+                new byte[] {
+                  85, 119, 97, 103, 97, 58, 32, 119, 32, 116, 121, 109, 32, 112, 108, 105, 107, 117,
+                  58
+                },
+                StandardCharsets.UTF_8), // Polish
+            new String(
+                new byte[] {
+                  79, 98, 115, 101, 114, 118, 97, -61, -89, -61, -93, 111, 58, 32, 105, 110, 99,
+                  108, 117, 105, 110, 100, 111, 32, 97, 114, 113, 117, 105, 118, 111, 58
+                },
+                StandardCharsets.UTF_8), // Portuguese
+            new String(
+                new byte[] {
+                  -48, -97, -47, -128, -48, -72, -48, -68, -48, -75, -47, -121, -48, -80, -48, -67,
+                  -48, -72, -48, -75, 58, 32, -48, -78, -48, -70, -48, -69, -47, -114, -47, -121,
+                  -48, -75, -48, -67, -48, -72, -48, -75, 32, -47, -124, -48, -80, -48, -71, -48,
+                  -69, -48, -80, 58
+                },
+                StandardCharsets.UTF_8), // Russian
+            new String(
+                new byte[] {
+                  78, 111, 116, 58, 32, 101, 107, 108, 101, 110, 101, 110, 32, 100, 111, 115, 121,
+                  97, 58
+                },
+                StandardCharsets.UTF_8), // Turkish
+            new String(
+                new byte[] {
+                  -26, -77, -88, -26, -124, -113, 58, 32, -27, -116, -123, -27, -112, -85, -26,
+                  -106, -121, -28, -69, -74, 58
+                },
+                StandardCharsets.UTF_8), // Simplified Chinese
+            new String(
+                new byte[] {
+                  78, 111, 116, 97, 58, 32, 105, 110, 99, 108, 117, 115, 105, -61, -77, 110, 32,
+                  100, 101, 108, 32, 97, 114, 99, 104, 105, 118, 111, 58
+                },
+                StandardCharsets.UTF_8) // Spanish
+            );
     private final String sourceFileName;
     private boolean sawPotentialUnsupportedShowIncludesLine;
     // Grab everything under the execroot base so that external repository header files are covered
@@ -117,7 +171,7 @@ public FilterShowIncludesOutputStream(OutputStream out, String sourceFileName) {
     public void write(int b) throws IOException {
       buffer.write(b);
       if (b == NEWLINE) {
-        String line = buffer.toString(ISO_8859_1);
+        String line = buffer.toString(StandardCharsets.UTF_8.name());
         boolean prefixMatched = false;
         for (String prefix : SHOW_INCLUDES_PREFIXES) {
           if (line.startsWith(prefix)) {
@@ -141,7 +195,9 @@ public void write(int b) throws IOException {
           // can use non-UTF8 encodings, which the checks above fail to detect. As this results in
           // incorrect incremental builds, we emit a warning if the raw byte sequence comprising the
           // line looks like it could be a /showIncludes line.
-          if (POTENTIAL_UNSUPPORTED_SHOW_INCLUDES_LINE.matcher(line.trim()).matches()) {
+          if (POTENTIAL_UNSUPPORTED_SHOW_INCLUDES_LINE
+              .matcher(buffer.toString(StandardCharsets.ISO_8859_1).trim())
+              .matches()) {
             sawPotentialUnsupportedShowIncludesLine = true;
           }
           buffer.writeTo(out);
@@ -152,7 +208,7 @@ public void write(int b) throws IOException {
 
     @Override
     public void flush() throws IOException {
-      String line = buffer.toString(ISO_8859_1);
+      String line = buffer.toString(StandardCharsets.UTF_8.name());
 
       // If this line starts or could start with a prefix.
       boolean startingWithAnyPrefix = false;
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/util/BUILD b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/util/BUILD
index 2f2809c3735dad..4d3409e3739775 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/util/BUILD
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/util/BUILD
@@ -251,7 +251,6 @@ java_library(
     deps = [
         ":os",
         ":shell_escaper",
-        ":string_encoding",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bugreport",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/concurrent",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/vfs",
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/util/DependencySet.java b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/util/DependencySet.java
index 62a34a000efded..524cda148e0c39 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/util/DependencySet.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/util/DependencySet.java
@@ -14,16 +14,14 @@
 
 package com.google.devtools.build.lib.util;
 
-import static java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets.ISO_8859_1;
-
 import com.google.common.annotations.VisibleForTesting;
-import com.google.common.base.Ascii;
 import com.google.common.base.Preconditions;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.vfs.FileSystemUtils;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.vfs.Path;
 import com.google.errorprone.annotations.CanIgnoreReturnValue;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.PrintStream;
+import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Collection;
 import java.util.Collections;
@@ -148,7 +146,7 @@ public DependencySet process(byte[] content) throws IOException {
           // keep scanning.  We do this to cope with "foo.o : \" which is
           // valid Makefile syntax produced by the cuda compiler.
           if (sawTarget && w > 0) {
-            addDependency(new String(content, 0, w, ISO_8859_1));
+            addDependency(new String(content, 0, w, StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
             w = 0;
           }
           continue;
@@ -162,7 +160,7 @@ public DependencySet process(byte[] content) throws IOException {
           // (Arguably if !sawTarget && w > 0 we should report an error,
           // as that suggests the .d file is malformed.)
           if (sawTarget && w > 0) {
-            addDependency(new String(content, 0, w, ISO_8859_1));
+            addDependency(new String(content, 0, w, StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
           }
           w = 0;
           sawTarget = false; // reset for new line
@@ -176,7 +174,7 @@ public DependencySet process(byte[] content) throws IOException {
             case '\n':
             case '\r':
               if (w > 0) {
-                outputFileName = new String(content, 0, w, ISO_8859_1);
+                outputFileName = new String(content, 0, w, StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
                 w = 0;
                 sawTarget = true;
               }
@@ -272,7 +270,11 @@ private static String translateWindowsPath(String path) {
         return path;
       }
       if (n >= 2 && isAsciiLetter(path.charAt(1)) && (n == 2 || path.charAt(2) == '/')) {
-        return Ascii.toUpperCase(path.charAt(1)) + ":/" + path.substring(2);
+        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(path.length());
+        sb.append(Character.toUpperCase(path.charAt(1)));
+        sb.append(":/");
+        sb.append(path, 2, path.length());
+        return sb.toString();
       } else {
         String unixRoot = getUnixRoot();
         return unixRoot + path;
@@ -308,7 +310,7 @@ private static String getUnixRoot() {
     @Nullable
     private static String determineUnixRoot(String jvmArgName) {
       // Get the path from a JVM flag, if specified.
-      String path = StringEncoding.platformToInternal(System.getProperty(jvmArgName));
+      String path = System.getProperty(jvmArgName);
       if (path == null) {
         return null;
       }
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/BUILD b/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/BUILD
index 4202f6e4a92aa9..bcf7c921a91d31 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/BUILD
+++ b/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/BUILD
@@ -154,7 +154,6 @@ java_library(
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/util:detailed_exit_code",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/util:filetype",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/util:os",
-        "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/util:string_encoding",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/util/io",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/vfs",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/vfs:pathfragment",
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/actions/TemplateExpansionActionTest.java b/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/actions/TemplateExpansionActionTest.java
index 1ebd5b08e4449f..15f208d16b6e82 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/actions/TemplateExpansionActionTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/analysis/actions/TemplateExpansionActionTest.java
@@ -39,7 +39,6 @@
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.exec.util.TestExecutorBuilder;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.testutil.FoundationTestCase;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.util.Fingerprint;
-import com.google.devtools.build.lib.util.StringEncoding;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.util.io.FileOutErr;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.vfs.FileSystemUtils;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.vfs.Path;
@@ -253,10 +252,7 @@ public void testWithSpecialCharacters() throws Exception {
     // scratch.overwriteFile appends a newline, so we need an additional \n here
     String expected = String.format("%s%s\n", SPECIAL_CHARS, SPECIAL_CHARS);
 
-    executeTemplateExpansion(
-        expected,
-        ImmutableList.of(
-            Substitution.of("%key%", StringEncoding.unicodeToInternal(SPECIAL_CHARS))));
+    executeTemplateExpansion(expected, ImmutableList.of(Substitution.of("%key%", SPECIAL_CHARS)));
   }
 
   private String computeKey(TemplateExpansionAction action) throws EvalException {
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/authandtls/BUILD b/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/authandtls/BUILD
index d013c143102b22..d16811aae7af9b 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/authandtls/BUILD
+++ b/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/authandtls/BUILD
@@ -27,7 +27,6 @@ java_library(
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/authandtls",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/authandtls/credentialhelper",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/events",
-        "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/util:string_encoding",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/vfs",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/vfs/inmemoryfs",
         "//src/main/java/com/google/devtools/common/options",
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/authandtls/BasicHttpAuthenticationEncoderTest.java b/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/authandtls/BasicHttpAuthenticationEncoderTest.java
index a7586f49a9758b..7873e0572d0a4e 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/authandtls/BasicHttpAuthenticationEncoderTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/authandtls/BasicHttpAuthenticationEncoderTest.java
@@ -16,7 +16,6 @@
 import static com.google.common.truth.Truth.assertThat;
 import static java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets.UTF_8;
 
-import com.google.devtools.build.lib.util.StringEncoding;
 import java.util.Base64;
 import org.junit.Test;
 import org.junit.runner.RunWith;
@@ -35,13 +34,13 @@ private static String[] decode(String message) {
 
   @Test
   public void encode_normalUsernamePassword_outputExpected() {
-    String message = BasicHttpAuthenticationEncoder.encode("Aladdin", "open sesame");
+    String message = BasicHttpAuthenticationEncoder.encode("Aladdin", "open sesame", UTF_8);
     assertThat(message).isEqualTo("Basic QWxhZGRpbjpvcGVuIHNlc2FtZQ==");
   }
 
   @Test
   public void encode_normalUsernamePassword_canBeDecoded() {
-    String message = BasicHttpAuthenticationEncoder.encode("Aladdin", "open sesame");
+    String message = BasicHttpAuthenticationEncoder.encode("Aladdin", "open sesame", UTF_8);
 
     String[] usernameAndPassword = decode(message);
     assertThat(usernameAndPassword[0]).isEqualTo("Aladdin");
@@ -50,7 +49,7 @@ public void encode_normalUsernamePassword_canBeDecoded() {
 
   @Test
   public void encode_usernameContainsColon_canBeDecoded() {
-    String message = BasicHttpAuthenticationEncoder.encode("foo:user", "foopass");
+    String message = BasicHttpAuthenticationEncoder.encode("foo:user", "foopass", UTF_8);
 
     String[] usernameAndPassword = decode(message);
     assertThat(usernameAndPassword[0]).isEqualTo("foo");
@@ -59,27 +58,25 @@ public void encode_usernameContainsColon_canBeDecoded() {
 
   @Test
   public void encode_emptyUsername_outputExpected() {
-    String message = BasicHttpAuthenticationEncoder.encode("", "foopass");
+    String message = BasicHttpAuthenticationEncoder.encode("", "foopass", UTF_8);
     assertThat(message).isEqualTo("Basic OmZvb3Bhc3M=");
   }
 
   @Test
   public void encode_emptyPassword_outputExpected() {
-    String message = BasicHttpAuthenticationEncoder.encode("foouser", "");
+    String message = BasicHttpAuthenticationEncoder.encode("foouser", "", UTF_8);
     assertThat(message).isEqualTo("Basic Zm9vdXNlcjo=");
   }
 
   @Test
   public void encode_emptyUsernamePassword_outputExpected() {
-    String message = BasicHttpAuthenticationEncoder.encode("", "");
+    String message = BasicHttpAuthenticationEncoder.encode("", "", UTF_8);
     assertThat(message).isEqualTo("Basic Og==");
   }
 
   @Test
   public void encode_specialCharacterUtf8_outputExpected() {
-    String message =
-        BasicHttpAuthenticationEncoder.encode(
-            "test", StringEncoding.unicodeToInternal("123\u00A3"));
+    String message = BasicHttpAuthenticationEncoder.encode("test", "123\u00A3", UTF_8);
     assertThat(message).isEqualTo("Basic dGVzdDoxMjPCow==");
   }
 }
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/authandtls/GoogleAuthUtilsTest.java b/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/authandtls/GoogleAuthUtilsTest.java
index ec1561e96def83..ec3f4e6437d3ea 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/authandtls/GoogleAuthUtilsTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/authandtls/GoogleAuthUtilsTest.java
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 package com.google.devtools.build.lib.authandtls;
 
 import static com.google.common.truth.Truth.assertThat;
+import static java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets.UTF_8;
 
 import com.google.auth.Credentials;
 import com.google.common.base.Preconditions;
@@ -343,7 +344,7 @@ private static void assertRequestMetadata(
       Map<String, List<String>> requestMetadata, String username, String password) {
     assertThat(requestMetadata.keySet()).containsExactly("Authorization");
     assertThat(Iterables.getOnlyElement(requestMetadata.values()))
-        .containsExactly(BasicHttpAuthenticationEncoder.encode(username, password));
+        .containsExactly(BasicHttpAuthenticationEncoder.encode(username, password, UTF_8));
   }
 
   private static CredentialHelperProvider newCredentialHelperProvider(
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/authandtls/NetrcCredentialsTest.java b/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/authandtls/NetrcCredentialsTest.java
index 12d204f3d4e3ba..2cb07cdf815003 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/authandtls/NetrcCredentialsTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/authandtls/NetrcCredentialsTest.java
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 package com.google.devtools.build.lib.authandtls;
 
 import static com.google.common.truth.Truth.assertThat;
+import static java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets.UTF_8;
 
 import com.google.common.collect.ImmutableMap;
 import com.google.common.collect.Iterables;
@@ -130,6 +131,6 @@ private static void assertRequestMetadata(
       Map<String, List<String>> requestMetadata, String username, String password) {
     assertThat(requestMetadata.keySet()).containsExactly("Authorization");
     assertThat(Iterables.getOnlyElement(requestMetadata.values()))
-        .containsExactly(BasicHttpAuthenticationEncoder.encode(username, password));
+        .containsExactly(BasicHttpAuthenticationEncoder.encode(username, password, UTF_8));
   }
 }
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/bzlmod/IndexRegistryTest.java b/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/bzlmod/IndexRegistryTest.java
index 7be12079291310..cedcaadf90ff66 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/bzlmod/IndexRegistryTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/bzlmod/IndexRegistryTest.java
@@ -70,7 +70,8 @@ public ImmutableMap<String, Optional<Checksum>> getRecordedHashes() {
     }
   }
 
-  private final String authToken = BasicHttpAuthenticationEncoder.encode("rinne", "rinnepass");
+  private final String authToken =
+      BasicHttpAuthenticationEncoder.encode("rinne", "rinnepass", UTF_8);
   private DownloadManager downloadManager;
   private EventRecorder eventRecorder;
   @Rule public final TestHttpServer server = new TestHttpServer(authToken);
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/repository/downloader/UrlRewriterTest.java b/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/repository/downloader/UrlRewriterTest.java
index 9b2b8cb0a18857..dcc41d16e58280 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/repository/downloader/UrlRewriterTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/repository/downloader/UrlRewriterTest.java
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 import static com.google.common.collect.ImmutableList.toImmutableList;
 import static com.google.common.truth.Truth.assertThat;
 import static java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets.ISO_8859_1;
+import static java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets.UTF_8;
 import static org.junit.Assert.fail;
 
 import com.google.auth.Credentials;
@@ -439,6 +440,6 @@ private static void assertRequestMetadata(
       Map<String, List<String>> requestMetadata, String username, String password) {
     assertThat(requestMetadata.keySet()).containsExactly("Authorization");
     assertThat(Iterables.getOnlyElement(requestMetadata.values()))
-        .containsExactly(BasicHttpAuthenticationEncoder.encode(username, password));
+        .containsExactly(BasicHttpAuthenticationEncoder.encode(username, password, UTF_8));
   }
 }
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/rules/cpp/ShowIncludesFilterTest.java b/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/rules/cpp/ShowIncludesFilterTest.java
index c831070a17061b..12c3cf88dfd440 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/rules/cpp/ShowIncludesFilterTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/rules/cpp/ShowIncludesFilterTest.java
@@ -17,6 +17,9 @@
 import static com.google.common.truth.Truth.assertThat;
 import static java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets.UTF_8;
 
+import com.google.devtools.build.lib.vfs.DigestHashFunction;
+import com.google.devtools.build.lib.vfs.FileSystem;
+import com.google.devtools.build.lib.vfs.inmemoryfs.InMemoryFileSystem;
 import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
 import java.io.FilterOutputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
@@ -32,12 +35,15 @@ public class ShowIncludesFilterTest {
   private ShowIncludesFilter showIncludesFilter;
   private ByteArrayOutputStream output;
   private FilterOutputStream filterOutputStream;
+  private FileSystem fs;
 
   @Before
   public void setUpOutputStreams() throws IOException {
     showIncludesFilter = new ShowIncludesFilter("foo.cpp");
     output = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
     filterOutputStream = showIncludesFilter.getFilteredOutputStream(output);
+    fs = new InMemoryFileSystem(DigestHashFunction.SHA256);
+    fs.getPath("/out").createDirectory();
   }
 
   private byte[] getBytes(String str) {
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/starlark/StarlarkRuleImplementationFunctionsTest.java b/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/starlark/StarlarkRuleImplementationFunctionsTest.java
index a2c537ba939f38..14e7ee62fe7101 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/starlark/StarlarkRuleImplementationFunctionsTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/starlark/StarlarkRuleImplementationFunctionsTest.java
@@ -19,7 +19,6 @@
 import static com.google.common.truth.Truth.assertWithMessage;
 import static com.google.devtools.build.lib.bazel.bzlmod.BzlmodTestUtil.createModuleKey;
 import static com.google.devtools.build.lib.skyframe.BzlLoadValue.keyForBuild;
-import static java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets.ISO_8859_1;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertThrows;
 import static org.junit.Assert.fail;
 
@@ -69,6 +68,8 @@
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.testutil.TestConstants;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.util.Fingerprint;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.util.OsUtils;
+import java.nio.charset.Charset;
+import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import java.util.Arrays;
 import java.util.Comparator;
 import java.util.HashMap;
@@ -915,20 +916,29 @@ public void testCreateTemplateAction() throws Exception {
     assertThat(action.makeExecutable()).isFalse();
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Simulates the fact that the Parser currently uses Latin1 to read BUILD files, while users
+   * usually write those files using UTF-8 encoding. Currently, the string-valued 'substitutions'
+   * parameter of the template_action function contains a hack that assumes its input is a UTF-8
+   * encoded string which has been ingested as Latin 1. The hack converts the string to its
+   * "correct" UTF-8 value. Once Blaze starts calling {@link
+   * net.starlark.java.syntax.ParserInput#fromUTF8} instead of {@code fromLatin1} and the hack for
+   * the substitutions parameter is removed, this test will fail.
+   */
   @Test
-  public void testCreateTemplateActionUnicode() throws Exception {
+  public void testCreateTemplateActionWithWrongEncoding() throws Exception {
     // The following array contains bytes that represent a string of length two when treated as
     // UTF-8 and a string of length four when treated as ISO-8859-1 (a.k.a. Latin 1).
-    String internalString =
-        new String(new byte[] {(byte) 0xC2, (byte) 0xA2, (byte) 0xC2, (byte) 0xA2}, ISO_8859_1);
+    byte[] bytesToDecode = {(byte) 0xC2, (byte) 0xA2, (byte) 0xC2, (byte) 0xA2};
+    Charset latin1 = StandardCharsets.ISO_8859_1;
+    Charset utf8 = StandardCharsets.UTF_8;
     StarlarkRuleContext ruleContext = createRuleContext("//foo:foo");
     setRuleContext(ruleContext);
-    // In production, Bazel parses Starlark as raw bytes encoded as Latin-1.
     ev.exec(
         "ruleContext.actions.expand_template(",
         "  template = ruleContext.files.srcs[0],",
         "  output = ruleContext.files.srcs[1],",
-        "  substitutions = {'a" + internalString + "': '" + internalString + "'},",
+        "  substitutions = {'a': '" + new String(bytesToDecode, latin1) + "'},",
         "  is_executable = False)");
     TemplateExpansionAction action =
         (TemplateExpansionAction)
@@ -936,8 +946,7 @@ public void testCreateTemplateActionUnicode() throws Exception {
                 ruleContext.getRuleContext().getAnalysisEnvironment().getRegisteredActions());
     List<Substitution> substitutions = action.getSubstitutions();
     assertThat(substitutions).hasSize(1);
-    assertThat(substitutions.get(0).getKey()).isEqualTo("a" + internalString);
-    assertThat(substitutions.get(0).getValue()).isEqualTo(internalString);
+    assertThat(substitutions.get(0).getValue()).isEqualTo(new String(bytesToDecode, utf8));
   }
 
   @Test
diff --git a/src/test/shell/bazel/BUILD b/src/test/shell/bazel/BUILD
index 3aee8794ae5c05..cc5ebafe945635 100644
--- a/src/test/shell/bazel/BUILD
+++ b/src/test/shell/bazel/BUILD
@@ -874,7 +874,7 @@ sh_test(
     data = [
         ":test-deps",
         "@bazel_tools//tools/bash/runfiles",
-        "@local_jdk//:jdk",  # for remote_helpers setup_localjdk_javabase
+        "@local_jdk//:jdk",
     ],
     shard_count = 10,
     tags = [
diff --git a/src/test/shell/bazel/bazel_workspaces_test.sh b/src/test/shell/bazel/bazel_workspaces_test.sh
index 7b689800249803..dc21ce0c7859f9 100755
--- a/src/test/shell/bazel/bazel_workspaces_test.sh
+++ b/src/test/shell/bazel/bazel_workspaces_test.sh
@@ -579,7 +579,21 @@ function test_read() {
   ensure_contains_exactly 'path: ".*filefile.sh"' 2
 }
 
-function test_read_roundtrip_utf8() {
+function test_read_roundtrip_legacy_utf8() {
+  # See discussion on https://github.com/bazelbuild/bazel/pull/7309
+  set_workspace_command '
+  content = "echo fïlëfïlë"
+  repository_ctx.file("filefile.sh", content, True, legacy_utf8=True)
+  read_result = repository_ctx.read("filefile.sh")
+
+  corrupted_content = "echo fïlëfïlë"
+  if read_result != corrupted_content:
+    fail("read(): expected %r, got %r" % (corrupted_content, read_result))'
+
+  build_and_process_log --exclude_rule "repository @@local_config_cc"
+}
+
+function test_read_roundtrip_nolegacy_utf8() {
   set_workspace_command '
   content = "echo fïlëfïlë"
   repository_ctx.file("filefile.sh", content, True, legacy_utf8=False)
diff --git a/src/test/shell/bazel/starlark_repository_test.sh b/src/test/shell/bazel/starlark_repository_test.sh
index a67b618b6468c3..431d1581f8bebf 100755
--- a/src/test/shell/bazel/starlark_repository_test.sh
+++ b/src/test/shell/bazel/starlark_repository_test.sh
@@ -56,14 +56,6 @@ msys*)
   ;;
 esac
 
-if $is_windows; then
-  export LC_ALL=C.utf8
-elif [[ "$(uname -s)" == "Linux" ]]; then
-  export LC_ALL=C.UTF-8
-else
-  export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8
-fi
-
 source "$(rlocation "io_bazel/src/test/shell/bazel/remote_helpers.sh")" \
   || { echo "remote_helpers.sh not found!" >&2; exit 1; }
 
@@ -478,84 +470,6 @@ EOF
   expect_log "PWD=$repo2 TOTO=titi"
 }
 
-function test_starlark_repository_unicode() {
-  setup_starlark_repository
-
-  if "$is_windows"; then
-    # äöüÄÖÜß in UTF-8
-    local unicode=$(echo -e '\xC3\xA4\xC3\xB6\xC3\xBC\xC3\x84\xC3\x96\xC3\x9C\xC3\x9F')
-  else
-    # äöüÄÖÜß🌱 in UTF-8
-    local unicode=$(echo -e '\xC3\xA4\xC3\xB6\xC3\xBC\xC3\x84\xC3\x96\xC3\x9C\xC3\x9F\xF0\x9F\x8C\xB1')
-  fi
-
-  tmpdir="$(mktemp -d ${TEST_TMPDIR}/test.XXXXXXXX)"
-  input_file="${tmpdir}/input$unicode"
-  echo -n "$unicode" > "${input_file}"
-
-  cat >test.bzl <<EOF
-UNICODE = "$unicode"
-
-def _impl(repository_ctx):
-  repository_ctx.file("BUILD", "filegroup(name='bar', srcs=[])")
-
-  input_file = repository_ctx.getenv("INPUT_" + UNICODE)
-  if not input_file:
-    fail("INPUT_%s not found in environment" % UNICODE)
-  input_content = repository_ctx.read(input_file)
-  if input_content != UNICODE:
-    fail("Incorrect content in input file: %s != %s" % (input_content, UNICODE))
-
-  repository_ctx.template(
-      "template" + UNICODE + ".txt",
-      input_file,
-      substitutions = {
-        UNICODE: UNICODE + "_replaced_" + UNICODE,
-      },
-  )
-
-  repository_ctx.file("direct" + UNICODE + ".txt", UNICODE)
-
-  result = repository_ctx.execute(
-      [str(repository_ctx.which("bash")), "-c", "echo '%s' >indirect%s.txt" % (UNICODE, UNICODE)]
-  )
-  if result.return_code != 0:
-    fail("Incorrect return code from bash: %s != 0\n%s" % (result.return_code, result.stderr))
-
-  result = repository_ctx.execute([str(repository_ctx.which("bash")), "-c", "echo '%s'" % UNICODE])
-  if result.return_code != 0:
-    fail("Incorrect return code from bash: %s != 0\n%s" % (result.return_code, result.stderr))
-  if result.stdout.strip() != UNICODE:
-    fail("Incorrect output from bash: %s != %s\n%s" % (result.stdout.strip(), UNICODE, result.stderr))
-
-  result = repository_ctx.execute([str(repository_ctx.which("bash")), "-c", "echo '%s' && exit 123" % UNICODE])
-  if result.return_code != 123:
-    fail("Incorrect return code from bash: %s != 123\n%s" % (result.return_code, result.stderr))
-  if result.stdout.strip() != UNICODE:
-    fail("Incorrect output from bash: %s != %s\n%s" % (result.stdout.strip(), UNICODE, result.stderr))
-
-  repository_ctx.file("foo.txt", UNICODE)
-  read_content = repository_ctx.read("foo.txt")
-  if read_content != UNICODE:
-    fail("Incorrect content in foo.txt: %s != %s" % (read_content, UNICODE))
-
-  print("UNICODE = %s" % UNICODE)
-repo = repository_rule(implementation=_impl)
-EOF
-
-  bazel build "--repo_env=INPUT_$unicode=${input_file}" @foo//:bar >& $TEST_log || fail "Failed to build"
-  expect_log "UNICODE = $unicode"
-  output_base="$(bazel info output_base)"
-  assert_contains "$unicode" "$output_base/external/+_repo_rules+foo/direct${unicode}.txt"
-  assert_contains "$unicode" "$output_base/external/+_repo_rules+foo/indirect${unicode}.txt"
-  assert_contains "${unicode}_replaced_${unicode}" "$output_base/external/+_repo_rules+foo/template${unicode}.txt"
-
-  # The repo rule should not be re-run on server restart
-  bazel shutdown
-  bazel build "--repo_env=INPUT_${unicode}=${input_file}" @foo//:bar >& $TEST_log || fail "Failed to build"
-  expect_not_log "UNICODE"
-}
-
 function test_starlark_repository_environ() {
   setup_starlark_repository
 
@@ -2033,7 +1947,7 @@ password foopass
 
 machine bar.example.org
 login barusername
-password passbar🌱
+password passbar
 
 # following lines mix tabs and spaces
 machine	  oauthlife.com
@@ -2098,7 +2012,7 @@ expected = {
     "https://bar.example.org/file3.tar" : {
       "type" : "basic",
       "login": "barusername",
-      "password" : "passbar🌱",
+      "password" : "passbar",
     },
     "https://oauthlife.com/fizz/buzz/file5.tar": {
       "type" : "pattern",
diff --git a/src/test/shell/bazel/unicode_filenames_test.sh b/src/test/shell/bazel/unicode_filenames_test.sh
index dad4f071f46a94..0db493480a971c 100755
--- a/src/test/shell/bazel/unicode_filenames_test.sh
+++ b/src/test/shell/bazel/unicode_filenames_test.sh
@@ -50,13 +50,6 @@ msys*|mingw*|cygwin*)
   ;;
 esac
 
-if $is_windows; then
-  export LC_ALL=C.utf8
-elif [[ "$(uname -s)" == "Linux" ]]; then
-  export LC_ALL=C.UTF-8
-else
-  export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8
-fi
 
 #### SETUP #############################################################
 
@@ -98,7 +91,23 @@ function has_iso_8859_1_locale() {
   [[ "${charmap}" == "ISO-8859-1" ]]
 }
 
+function has_utf8_locale() {
+  charmap="$(LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 locale charmap 2>/dev/null)"
+  [[ "${charmap}" == "UTF-8" ]]
+}
+
 function test_utf8_source_artifact() {
+  # Bazel relies on the JVM for filename encoding, and can only support
+  # UTF-8 if either a UTF-8 or ISO-8859-1 locale is available.
+  if ! "$is_windows"; then
+    if ! has_iso_8859_1_locale && ! has_utf8_locale; then
+      echo "Skipping test (no ISO-8859-1 or UTF-8 locale)."
+      echo "Available locales (need ISO-8859-1 or UTF-8):"
+      locale -a
+      return
+    fi
+  fi
+
   unicode_filenames_test_setup
 
   touch 'pkg/srcs/regular file.txt'
@@ -110,7 +119,14 @@ function test_utf8_source_artifact() {
   # 'pkg/srcs/\xc3\xbcn\xc3\xafc\xc3\xb6d\xc3\xab f\xc3\xafl\xc3\xab.txt'
   touch "$(printf '%b' 'pkg/srcs/\xc3\xbcn\xc3\xafc\xc3\xb6d\xc3\xab f\xc3\xafl\xc3\xab.txt')"
 
-  bazel build //pkg:ls_srcs >$TEST_log 2>&1 || fail "Should build"
+  # On systems without an ISO-8859-1 locale, the environment locale must be
+  # the same as the file encoding.
+  #
+  # This doesn't affect systems that do have an ISO-8859-1 locale, because the
+  # Bazel launcher will force it to be used.
+  bazel shutdown
+  LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 bazel build //pkg:ls_srcs >$TEST_log 2>&1 || fail "Should build"
+  bazel shutdown
 
   assert_contains "pkg/srcs/regular file.txt" bazel-bin/pkg/ls_srcs
   assert_contains "pkg/srcs/subdir/file.txt" bazel-bin/pkg/ls_srcs
@@ -149,6 +165,17 @@ function test_traditional_encoding_source_artifact() {
 }
 
 function test_utf8_source_artifact_in_bep() {
+  # Bazel relies on the JVM for filename encoding, and can only support
+  # UTF-8 if either a UTF-8 or ISO-8859-1 locale is available.
+  if ! "$is_windows"; then
+    if ! has_iso_8859_1_locale && ! has_utf8_locale; then
+      echo "Skipping test (no ISO-8859-1 or UTF-8 locale)."
+      echo "Available locales (need ISO-8859-1 or UTF-8):"
+      locale -a
+      return
+    fi
+  fi
+
   unicode_filenames_test_setup
 
   touch 'pkg/srcs/regular file.txt'
@@ -160,8 +187,15 @@ function test_utf8_source_artifact_in_bep() {
   # 'pkg/srcs/\xc3\xbcn\xc3\xafc\xc3\xb6d\xc3\xab f\xc3\xafl\xc3\xab.txt'
   touch "$(printf '%b' 'pkg/srcs/\xc3\xbcn\xc3\xafc\xc3\xb6d\xc3\xab f\xc3\xafl\xc3\xab.txt')"
 
-  bazel build --build_event_json_file="$TEST_log" \
+  # On systems without an ISO-8859-1 locale, the environment locale must be
+  # the same as the file encoding.
+  #
+  # This doesn't affect systems that do have an ISO-8859-1 locale, because the
+  # Bazel launcher will force it to be used.
+  bazel shutdown
+  LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 bazel build --build_event_json_file="$TEST_log" \
       //pkg:filegroup 2>&1 || fail "Should build"
+  bazel shutdown
 
   expect_log '"name":"pkg/srcs/regular file.txt"'
   expect_log '"name":"pkg/srcs/subdir/file.txt"'
@@ -169,6 +203,10 @@ function test_utf8_source_artifact_in_bep() {
 }
 
 function test_utf8_filename_in_java_test() {
+  # Intentionally do not check for available locales: Either C.UTF_8 or
+  # en_US.UTF-8 should exist on all CI machines - if not, we want to learn about
+  # this so that the Java stub template can be adapted accordingly.
+
   touch WORKSPACE
   mkdir pkg
 
@@ -195,53 +233,4 @@ EOF
   bazel test //pkg:Test --test_output=errors 2>$TEST_log || fail "Test should pass"
 }
 
-function test_cc_dependency_with_utf8_filename() {
-  # TODO: Find a way to get cl.exe to output Unicode when not running in a
-  # console or migrate to /sourceDependencies.
-  if $is_windows; then
-    echo "Skipping test on Windows." && return
-  fi
-
-  local unicode="äöüÄÖÜß🌱"
-
-  setup_module_dot_bazel
-
-  mkdir pkg
-  cat >pkg/BUILD <<EOF
-cc_library(
-    name = "lib",
-    hdrs = ["${unicode}.h"],
-)
-cc_binary(
-    name = "bin",
-    srcs = ["bin.cc"],
-    deps = [":lib"],
-)
-EOF
-  cat >"pkg/${unicode}.h" <<EOF
-#define MY_STRING "original"
-EOF
-  # MSVC requires UTF-8 source files to start with a BOM.
-  printf '\xEF\xBB\xBF' > pkg/bin.cc
-  cat >>pkg/bin.cc <<EOF
-#include "${unicode}.h"
-
-#include <iostream>
-
-int main() {
-  std::cout << MY_STRING << std::endl;
-  return 0;
-}
-EOF
-  bazel run //pkg:bin >$TEST_log 2>&1 || fail "Should build"
-  expect_log "original"
-
-  # Change the header file and rebuild
-  cat >"pkg/${unicode}.h" <<EOF
-#define MY_STRING "changed"
-EOF
-  bazel run //pkg:bin >$TEST_log 2>&1 || fail "Should build"
-  expect_log "changed"
-}
-
 run_suite "Tests for handling of Unicode filenames"
diff --git a/src/test/shell/integration/run_test.sh b/src/test/shell/integration/run_test.sh
index 9cca51e6fd9a18..f8d172b7c6bb48 100755
--- a/src/test/shell/integration/run_test.sh
+++ b/src/test/shell/integration/run_test.sh
@@ -678,6 +678,7 @@ EOF
   fi
 }
 
+
 function test_build_id_env_var() {
   local -r pkg="pkg${LINENO}"
   mkdir -p "${pkg}"
diff --git a/src/test/shell/integration/starlark_dependency_pruning_test.sh b/src/test/shell/integration/starlark_dependency_pruning_test.sh
index 802c31a2c1e345..ceb84465081346 100755
--- a/src/test/shell/integration/starlark_dependency_pruning_test.sh
+++ b/src/test/shell/integration/starlark_dependency_pruning_test.sh
@@ -49,14 +49,6 @@ msys*|mingw*|cygwin*)
   ;;
 esac
 
-if $is_windows; then
-  export LC_ALL=C.utf8
-elif [[ "$(uname -s)" == "Linux" ]]; then
-  export LC_ALL=C.UTF-8
-else
-  export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8
-fi
-
 add_to_bazelrc "build --package_path=%workspace%"
 add_to_bazelrc "build --spawn_strategy=local"
 
@@ -250,43 +242,6 @@ function test_dependency_pruning_scenario() {
   check_unused_content "pkg/c.input"
 }
 
-function test_dependency_pruning_scenario_unicode() {
-  if "$is_windows"; then
-    # äöüÄÖÜß in UTF-8
-    local unicode=$(echo -e '\xC3\xA4\xC3\xB6\xC3\xBC\xC3\x84\xC3\x96\xC3\x9C\xC3\x9F')
-  else
-    # äöüÄÖÜß🌱 in UTF-8
-    local unicode=$(echo -e '\xC3\xA4\xC3\xB6\xC3\xBC\xC3\x84\xC3\x96\xC3\x9C\xC3\x9F\xF0\x9F\x8C\xB1')
-  fi
-
-  # Initial build.
-  echo "contentD${unicode}" > "pkg/d${unicode}.input"
-  bazel build //pkg:output || fail "build failed"
-  check_output_content "contentA contentB contentC contentD${unicode}"
-  check_unused_content
-
-  # Mark "d" as unused.
-  echo "unused" > "pkg/d${unicode}.input"
-  bazel build //pkg:output || fail "build failed"
-  check_output_content "contentA contentB contentC"
-  check_unused_content "pkg/d${unicode}.input"
-
-  # Change "d" again:
-  # This time it should be used. But given that it was marked "unused"
-  # the build should not trigger: "d" should still be considered unused.
-  echo "newContentD${unicode}" > "pkg/d${unicode}.input"
-  bazel build //pkg:output || fail "build failed"
-  check_output_content "contentA contentB contentC"
-  check_unused_content "pkg/d${unicode}.input"
-
-  # Change c:
-  # The build should be triggered, and the newer version of "d" should be used.
-  echo "unused" > pkg/c.input
-  bazel build //pkg:output || fail "build failed"
-  check_output_content "contentA contentB newContentD${unicode}"
-  check_unused_content "pkg/c.input"
-}
-
 # Verify that the state of the local action cache survives server shutdown.
 function test_unused_shutdown() {
   # Mark "b" as unused + initial build