diff --git a/docs/topics/logging.rst b/docs/topics/logging.rst
index f57128287..5e1a0e4bb 100644
--- a/docs/topics/logging.rst
+++ b/docs/topics/logging.rst
@@ -129,3 +129,14 @@ scrapy.log module
 
     Log level for debugging messages (recommended level for development)
 
+Logging settings
+================
+
+These settings can be used to configure the logging:
+
+* :setting:`LOG_ENABLED`
+* :setting:`LOG_ENCODING`
+* :setting:`LOG_FILE`
+* :setting:`LOG_LEVEL`
+* :setting:`LOG_STDOUT`
+
diff --git a/docs/topics/settings.rst b/docs/topics/settings.rst
index 4058eec3e..ffb2921e7 100644
--- a/docs/topics/settings.rst
+++ b/docs/topics/settings.rst
@@ -526,7 +526,16 @@ LOG_ENABLED
 
 Default: ``True``
 
-Enable logging.
+Whether to enable logging.
+
+.. setting:: LOG_ENCODING
+
+LOG_ENCODING
+------------
+
+Default: ``'utf-8'``
+
+The encoding to use for logging.
 
 .. setting:: LOG_FILE
 
diff --git a/scrapy/log.py b/scrapy/log.py
index 71897ffee..c4f9287e5 100644
--- a/scrapy/log.py
+++ b/scrapy/log.py
@@ -29,8 +29,9 @@ BOT_NAME = settings['BOT_NAME']
 # args: message, level, spider
 logmessage_received = object()
 
-# default logging level
+# default values
 log_level = DEBUG
+log_encoding = 'utf-8'
 
 started = False
 
@@ -47,11 +48,12 @@ def _get_log_level(level_name_or_id=None):
 
 def start(logfile=None, loglevel=None, logstdout=None):
     """Initialize and start logging facility"""
-    global log_level, started
+    global log_level, log_encoding, started
 
     if started or not settings.getbool('LOG_ENABLED'):
         return
     log_level = _get_log_level(loglevel)
+    log_encoding = settings['LOG_ENCODING']
     started = True
 
     # set log observer
@@ -74,7 +76,7 @@ def msg(message, level=INFO, component=BOT_NAME, domain=None, spider=None):
     dispatcher.send(signal=logmessage_received, message=message, level=level, \
         spider=spider)
     system = domain or (spider.domain_name if spider else component)
-    msg_txt = unicode_to_str("%s: %s" % (level_names[level], message))
+    msg_txt = unicode_to_str("%s: %s" % (level_names[level], message), log_encoding)
     log.msg(msg_txt, system=system)
 
 def exc(message, level=ERROR, component=BOT_NAME, domain=None, spider=None):
@@ -93,5 +95,5 @@ def err(_stuff=None, _why=None, **kwargs):
             "use 'spider' argument instead", DeprecationWarning, stacklevel=2)
     kwargs['system'] = domain or (spider.domain_name if spider else component)
     if _why:
-        _why = unicode_to_str("ERROR: %s" % _why)
+        _why = unicode_to_str("ERROR: %s" % _why, log_encoding)
     log.err(_stuff, _why, **kwargs)