diff --git a/lib/text-table.rb b/lib/text-table.rb
index 0b71cd4..3820774 100644
--- a/lib/text-table.rb
+++ b/lib/text-table.rb
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+$KCODE = 'u'
 %w(table row cell enumerable symbol).each do |lib|
   require File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), 'text-table', lib)
-end
\ No newline at end of file
+end
diff --git a/lib/text-table/cell.rb b/lib/text-table/cell.rb
index f8298a0..e29e85f 100644
--- a/lib/text-table/cell.rb
+++ b/lib/text-table/cell.rb
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ class Cell
       # The object whose <tt>to_s</tt> method is called when rendering the cell.
       #
       attr_accessor :value
-      
+
       # Text alignment.  Acceptable values are <tt>:left</tt> (default),
       # <tt>:center</tt> and <tt>:right</tt>
       #
@@ -23,14 +23,28 @@ def initialize(options = {}) #:nodoc:
         @colspan = options[:colspan] || 1
       end
 
+      def text_width
+        char_count + value.chars.count { |c| c.bytesize > 2 }
+      end
+
+      def char_count
+        @char_count ||= value.split('').length
+      end
+
       def to_s #:nodoc:
+        if RUBY_VERSION < '1.9'
+          len = value.bytesize + cell_width - text_width
+        else
+          len = value.length + cell_width - text_width
+        end
+
       ([' ' * table.horizontal_padding]*2).join case align
         when :left
-          value.ljust cell_width
+          value.ljust len
         when :right
-          value.rjust cell_width
+          value.rjust len
         when :center
-          value.center cell_width
+          value.center len
         end
       end
 
@@ -48,4 +62,4 @@ def cell_width #:nodoc:
 
     end
   end
-end
\ No newline at end of file
+end
diff --git a/lib/text-table/table.rb b/lib/text-table/table.rb
index 427e611..d068d84 100644
--- a/lib/text-table/table.rb
+++ b/lib/text-table/table.rb
@@ -153,7 +153,7 @@ def all_text_table_rows #:nodoc:
     def column_widths #:nodoc:
       @column_widths ||= \
       all_text_table_rows.reject {|row| row.cells == :separator}.map do |row|
-        row.cells.map {|cell| [(cell.value.length/cell.colspan.to_f).ceil] * cell.colspan}.flatten
+        row.cells.map {|cell| [(cell.text_width/cell.colspan.to_f).ceil] * cell.colspan}.flatten
       end.transpose.map(&:max)
     end
 
diff --git a/spec/integration/multibyte_spec.rb b/spec/integration/multibyte_spec.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8b17bf7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spec/integration/multibyte_spec.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+# coding: utf-8
+require 'integration_helper'
+
+describe Text::Table do
+  let(:table) { Text::Table.new :rows => rows }
+  let(:rows) do
+    [
+      ["Hello"],
+      ["こんにちは"],
+      ["مرحبا"],
+      ["안녕하세요"],
+    ]
+  end
+
+  subject { table.to_s }
+
+  describe 'rows' do
+    it { should == deindent(%q{
+      +------------+
+      | Hello      |
+      | こんにちは |
+      | مرحبا      |
+      | 안녕하세요 |
+      +------------+
+    }) }
+  end
+end