diff --git a/Naomi.py b/Naomi.py
index 83010ec..704cc95 100755
--- a/Naomi.py
+++ b/Naomi.py
@@ -1,9 +1,23 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python3
 # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
-import naomi
 import sys
 
-if(sys.version_info.major < 3):
-    raise SystemError("This version of Naomi requires Python 3.5 or greater")
+if (sys.version_info.major < 3):
+    sys.stderr.write("Error: This version of Naomi requires Python 3.5 or greater\n")
+    sys.exit(1)
+
+import locale
+try:
+    encoding = locale.getpreferredencoding()
+    if encoding and encoding.lower() not in ('utf-8', 'utf8'):
+        sys.stderr.write("WARNING: Your system locale is configured to use a non-UTF-8 character encoding ({}).\n".format(encoding))
+        sys.stderr.write("This may cause Naomi to crash when reading files or configuration containing international characters.\n")
+        sys.stderr.write("Please consider setting your system locale to UTF-8 (e.g. by setting LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 in Linux).\n")
+except Exception:
+    # Ignore any errors during encoding check so startup doesn't fail
+    pass
+
+import naomi
 
 naomi.main()
+
diff --git a/Populate.py b/Populate.py
index 85d83d8..80c226b 100755
--- a/Populate.py
+++ b/Populate.py
@@ -1,9 +1,23 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python3
 # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
-import naomi
 import sys
 
-if(sys.version_info.major < 3):
-    raise SystemError("This version of Naomi requires Python 3.5 or greater")
+if (sys.version_info.major < 3):
+    sys.stderr.write("Error: This version of Naomi requires Python 3.5 or greater\n")
+    sys.exit(1)
+
+import locale
+try:
+    encoding = locale.getpreferredencoding()
+    if encoding and encoding.lower() not in ('utf-8', 'utf8'):
+        sys.stderr.write("WARNING: Your system locale is configured to use a non-UTF-8 character encoding ({}).\n".format(encoding))
+        sys.stderr.write("This may cause Naomi to crash when reading files or configuration containing international characters.\n")
+        sys.stderr.write("Please consider setting your system locale to UTF-8 (e.g. by setting LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 in Linux).\n")
+except Exception:
+    # Ignore any errors during encoding check so startup doesn't fail
+    pass
+
+import naomi
 
 naomi.main(args=["--repopulate"])
+