diff --git a/tools/cpplint.py b/tools/cpplint.py
index 305220060c5cdb..565e9764506e9c 100644
--- a/tools/cpplint.py
+++ b/tools/cpplint.py
@@ -1074,8 +1074,8 @@ def RepositoryName(self):
     """
     fullname = self.FullName()
     # XXX(bnoordhuis) Expects that cpplint.py lives in the tools/ directory.
-    toplevel = os.path.abspath(
-        os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), '..')).replace('\\', '/')
+    toplevel = os.path.abspath(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), '..')) \
+    .replace('\\', '/').decode('utf-8')
     prefix = os.path.commonprefix([fullname, toplevel])
     return fullname[len(prefix) + 1:]
 
@@ -6084,7 +6084,7 @@ def main():
 
   _cpplint_state.ResetErrorCounts()
   for filename in filenames:
-    ProcessFile(filename, _cpplint_state.verbose_level)
+    ProcessFile(filename.decode('utf-8'), _cpplint_state.verbose_level)
   _cpplint_state.PrintErrorCounts()
 
   sys.exit(_cpplint_state.error_count > 0)