diff --git a/flink-core/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/types/variant/BinaryVariantUtil.java b/flink-core/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/types/variant/BinaryVariantUtil.java
index a3aed62cc130c8..c3ab8d29be811b 100644
--- a/flink-core/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/types/variant/BinaryVariantUtil.java
+++ b/flink-core/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/types/variant/BinaryVariantUtil.java
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@
 
 import java.math.BigDecimal;
 import java.math.BigInteger;
+import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter;
 import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatterBuilder;
 import java.util.Arrays;
@@ -528,7 +529,7 @@ public static String getString(byte[] value, int pos) {
                 length = readUnsigned(value, pos + 1, U32_SIZE);
             }
             checkIndex(start + length - 1, value.length);
-            return new String(value, start, length);
+            return new String(value, start, length, StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
         }
         throw unexpectedType(Type.STRING);
     }
@@ -625,6 +626,7 @@ public static String getMetadataKey(byte[] metadata, int id) {
             throw malformedVariant();
         }
         checkIndex(stringStart + nextOffset - 1, metadata.length);
-        return new String(metadata, stringStart + offset, nextOffset - offset);
+        return new String(
+                metadata, stringStart + offset, nextOffset - offset, StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
     }
 }
diff --git a/flink-core/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/types/variant/BinaryVariantInternalBuilderTest.java b/flink-core/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/types/variant/BinaryVariantInternalBuilderTest.java
index cec12149ceb5f8..3ce271896a2f82 100644
--- a/flink-core/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/types/variant/BinaryVariantInternalBuilderTest.java
+++ b/flink-core/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/types/variant/BinaryVariantInternalBuilderTest.java
@@ -122,6 +122,18 @@ void testParseJsonObject() throws IOException {
         assertThat(variant.getField("k2").getDecimal()).isEqualTo(BigDecimal.valueOf(1.5));
     }
 
+    @Test
+    void testParseJsonWithNonAsciiStringsAndKeys() throws IOException {
+        String json = "{\"schlüssel\":\"Grüße, 世界 🚀\",\"キー\":[\"äöü\"]}";
+
+        BinaryVariant variant = BinaryVariantInternalBuilder.parseJson(json, false);
+
+        assertThat(variant.getFieldNames()).containsExactlyInAnyOrder("schlüssel", "キー");
+        assertThat(variant.getField("schlüssel").getString()).isEqualTo("Grüße, 世界 🚀");
+        assertThat(variant.getField("キー").getElement(0).getString()).isEqualTo("äöü");
+        assertThat(variant.toJson()).isEqualTo(json);
+    }
+
     @ParameterizedTest
     @ValueSource(strings = {"NaN", "Infinity", "-Infinity", "1e400", "-1e400"})
     void testParseJsonRejectsNonFiniteNumbers(final String nonFiniteNumber) {
diff --git a/flink-core/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/types/variant/BinaryVariantTest.java b/flink-core/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/types/variant/BinaryVariantTest.java
index 77235e968eebce..4468fcbe8d8e17 100644
--- a/flink-core/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/types/variant/BinaryVariantTest.java
+++ b/flink-core/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/types/variant/BinaryVariantTest.java
@@ -24,10 +24,12 @@
 import org.junit.jupiter.params.provider.ValueSource;
 
 import java.math.BigDecimal;
+import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import java.time.Instant;
 import java.time.LocalDate;
 import java.time.LocalDateTime;
 import java.time.temporal.ChronoUnit;
+import java.util.Collections;
 
 import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;
 import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThatThrownBy;
@@ -254,6 +256,53 @@ void testToJsonRejectsNonFiniteFloat(final float nonFinite) {
                 .hasMessageContaining("cannot be serialized to JSON");
     }
 
+    @Test
+    void testNonAsciiStringsAndFieldNames() {
+        // Multi-byte code points make the UTF-8 byte length differ from the character count, so a
+        // charset mismatch between writing and reading mangles the text instead of preserving it.
+        final String nestedKey = "キー";
+        final String shortValue = "Grüße, 世界 🚀";
+        final String longValue = String.join("", Collections.nCopies(20, "äö🚀"));
+
+        assertThat(longValue.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8).length)
+                .as("long string must not fit into the short string encoding")
+                .isGreaterThan(BinaryVariantUtil.MAX_SHORT_STR_SIZE);
+
+        final BinaryVariant variant =
+                (BinaryVariant)
+                        builder.object()
+                                .add("schlüssel", builder.of(shortValue))
+                                .add(
+                                        nestedKey,
+                                        builder.object()
+                                                .add("schlüssel", builder.of(longValue))
+                                                .build())
+                                .build();
+
+        // Reading through the raw binaries is what happens once a variant has been serialized, and
+        // it is the only path that decodes the field names from the metadata.
+        final BinaryVariant decoded = new BinaryVariant(variant.getValue(), variant.getMetadata());
+
+        assertThat(decoded.getFieldNames()).containsExactlyInAnyOrder("schlüssel", nestedKey);
+        assertThat(decoded.getField("schlüssel").getString()).isEqualTo(shortValue);
+        assertThat(decoded.getField(nestedKey).getFieldNames()).containsExactly("schlüssel");
+        assertThat(decoded.getField(nestedKey).getField("schlüssel").getString())
+                .isEqualTo(longValue);
+        assertThat(decoded.toJson())
+                .isEqualTo(
+                        "{\""
+                                + "schlüssel"
+                                + "\":\""
+                                + shortValue
+                                + "\",\""
+                                + nestedKey
+                                + "\":{\""
+                                + "schlüssel"
+                                + "\":\""
+                                + longValue
+                                + "\"}}");
+    }
+
     @Test
     void testVariantException() {
         assertThatThrownBy(() -> new BinaryVariant(new byte[0], new byte[0]))