diff --git a/tests/regressiontests/model_regress/tests.py b/tests/regressiontests/model_regress/tests.py
index 07ad8fa..60aa4da 100644
--- a/tests/regressiontests/model_regress/tests.py
+++ b/tests/regressiontests/model_regress/tests.py
@@ -2,10 +2,11 @@ from __future__ import absolute_import
 
 import datetime
 from operator import attrgetter
+import sys
 
 from django.core.exceptions import ValidationError
 from django.test import TestCase, skipUnlessDBFeature
-from django.utils import tzinfo
+from django.utils import tzinfo, unittest
 
 from .models import (Worker, Article, Party, Event, Department,
     BrokenUnicodeMethod, NonAutoPK)
@@ -141,6 +142,8 @@ class ModelTests(TestCase):
         w = Worker.objects.create(department=d, name="Full-time")
         self.assertEqual(unicode(w), "Full-time")
 
+    @unittest.skipIf(sys.getdefaultencoding() != 'ascii',
+        "Default system encoding is not ascii")
     def test_broken_unicode(self):
         # Models with broken unicode methods should still have a printable repr
         b = BrokenUnicodeMethod.objects.create(name="Jerry")