diff --git a/lib/noosfero/core_ext/string.rb b/lib/noosfero/core_ext/string.rb
index 3a8f40c..fadf285 100644
--- a/lib/noosfero/core_ext/string.rb
+++ b/lib/noosfero/core_ext/string.rb
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ class String
   end
 
   def to_slug
-    transliterate.downcase.gsub(/[^a-z0-9~\s:;+=_."'`-]/, '').gsub(/[\s:;+=_"'`-]+/, '-').gsub(/-$/, '').gsub(/^-/, '').to_s
+    transliterate.downcase.gsub(/[^\w~\s:;+=_."'`-]/, '').gsub(/[\s:;+=_"'`-]+/, '-').gsub(/-$/, '').gsub(/^-/, '').to_s
   end
 
 end
diff --git a/test/unit/string_core_ext_test.rb b/test/unit/string_core_ext_test.rb
index 58c33a1..ce314e8 100644
--- a/test/unit/string_core_ext_test.rb
+++ b/test/unit/string_core_ext_test.rb
@@ -24,6 +24,10 @@ class StringCoreExtTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
     assert_equal 'a.b', 'a.b'.to_slug
   end
 
+  should 'handle multy-byte UTF-8 characters properly' do
+    assert_equal '日本語ローカライズチーム-home', '日本語ローカライズチーム_HOME'.to_slug
+  end
+
   # tests for String#transliterate
   should 'transliterate' do
     assert_equal 'aaaaaaAAAAAeeeeEEOOoocaaaiIIiuuyYnNcC', 'ªáàäâåÁÀÄÂÅéèëêÊËÖÔöôçäàâîÏÎïûüÿŸñÑçÇ'.transliterate
--
libgit2 0.21.2