diff --git a/geronimo-specs.build.xml b/geronimo-specs.build.xml
index 50a372c..53fc287 100644
--- a/geronimo-specs.build.xml
+++ b/geronimo-specs.build.xml
@@ -229,7 +229,7 @@
       <mkdir dir="${gbuild.dir}/${dist}"/>
       <mkdir dir="${gbuild.dir}/${apidocs}"/>
 
-      <javac srcdir="${gbuild.dir}/${src}" destdir="${gbuild.dir}/${build}" classpath="${gbuild.classpath}"/>
+      <javac srcdir="${gbuild.dir}/${src}" destdir="${gbuild.dir}/${build}" classpath="${gbuild.classpath}" encoding="UTF-8"/>
 
       <jar jarfile="${gbuild.dir}/${dist}/${gbuild.jar}" basedir="${gbuild.dir}/${build}"/>
 
diff --git a/geronimo-specs.changes b/geronimo-specs.changes
index 81a18d3..241cb4e 100644
--- a/geronimo-specs.changes
+++ b/geronimo-specs.changes
@@ -1,3 +1,12 @@
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+Fri Sep  8 07:54:40 UTC 2017 - fstrba@suse.com
+
+- Specify java source and target version to 1.6 in order to allow
+  build with jdk9
+- Modified source:
+  * geronimo-specs.build.xml
+    - specify encoding UTF-8, since the files use UTF-8 characters
+
 -------------------------------------------------------------------
 Fri May 19 14:33:51 UTC 2017 - tchvatal@suse.com
 
diff --git a/geronimo-specs.spec b/geronimo-specs.spec
index ed276ee..1e2db8a 100644
--- a/geronimo-specs.spec
+++ b/geronimo-specs.spec
@@ -116,7 +116,7 @@ Patch4:         geronimo-specs-j2ee-1.4-pom_xml.patch
 Patch5:         geronimo-specs-corba-2.3-pom_xml.patch
 BuildRequires:  ant
 BuildRequires:  fdupes
-BuildRequires:  java-devel >= 1.5.0
+BuildRequires:  java-devel >= 1.6.0
 BuildRequires:  javapackages-local
 BuildRequires:  javapackages-tools
 BuildRequires:  junit >= 3.8.1
@@ -807,7 +807,7 @@ ln -s %{_javadir} external_repo/JPP
 cp %{SOURCE1000} build.xml
 
 %build
-ant -Dant.build.javac.source=1.5 -Dant.build.javac.target=1.5 \
+ant -Dant.build.javac.source=1.6 -Dant.build.javac.target=1.6 \
     -Didlj=%{java_home}/bin/idlj
 
 %install