diff --git a/package/python/python.mk b/package/python/python.mk
index 7b20434c94..281130c68b 100644
--- a/package/python/python.mk
+++ b/package/python/python.mk
@@ -105,6 +105,9 @@ endif
 
 # Default is UCS2 w/o a conf opt
 ifeq ($(BR2_PACKAGE_PYTHON_UCS4),y)
+# host-python must have the same UCS2/4 configuration as the target
+# python
+HOST_PYTHON_CONF_OPTS += --enable-unicode=ucs4
 PYTHON_CONF_OPTS += --enable-unicode=ucs4
 endif