diff --git a/package/systemd/Config.in b/package/systemd/Config.in
index 8978e3bac1..7b613df02c 100644
--- a/package/systemd/Config.in
+++ b/package/systemd/Config.in
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ menuconfig BR2_PACKAGE_SYSTEMD
 	select BR2_PACKAGE_BUSYBOX_SHOW_OTHERS # kmod-tools
 	select BR2_PACKAGE_KMOD_TOOLS
 	select BR2_TARGET_TZ_INFO
-	select BR2_NEEDS_HOST_C_UTF8_LOCALE
+	select BR2_NEEDS_HOST_UTF8_LOCALE
 	help
 	  systemd is a system and service manager for Linux,
 	  compatible with SysV and LSB init scripts. systemd provides
diff --git a/package/systemd/systemd.mk b/package/systemd/systemd.mk
index 22384c648b..8c22c08dd1 100644
--- a/package/systemd/systemd.mk
+++ b/package/systemd/systemd.mk
@@ -387,7 +387,7 @@ endef
 
 SYSTEMD_NINJA_OPTS = $(if $(VERBOSE),-v) -j$(PARALLEL_JOBS)
 
-SYSTEMD_ENV = $(TARGET_MAKE_ENV) LANG=C.UTF-8 LC_ALL=C.UTF-8
+SYSTEMD_ENV = $(TARGET_MAKE_ENV) $(HOST_UTF8_LOCALE_ENV)
 
 define SYSTEMD_CONFIGURE_CMDS
 	rm -rf $(@D)/build