diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 0889b056d0..7195365d3c 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -266,6 +266,13 @@ OBJCOPY := $(MIPS_BINUTILS_PREFIX)objcopy
 OBJDUMP := $(MIPS_BINUTILS_PREFIX)objdump
 NM      := $(MIPS_BINUTILS_PREFIX)nm
 
+# The default iconv on macOS has some differences from GNU iconv, so we use the Homebrew version instead
+ifeq ($(UNAME_S),Darwin)
+  ICONV := $(shell brew --prefix)/opt/libiconv/bin/iconv
+else
+  ICONV := iconv
+endif
+
 INC := -Iinclude -Iinclude/libc -Isrc -I$(BUILD_DIR) -I. -I$(EXTRACTED_DIR)
 
 # Check code syntax with host compiler
@@ -598,7 +605,7 @@ $(BUILD_DIR)/assets/misc/z_select_static/%.o: GBI_DEFINES := -DF3DEX_GBI
 
 ifeq ($(PERMUTER),)  # permuter + preprocess.py misbehaves, permuter doesn't care about rodata diffs or bss ordering so just don't use it in that case
 # Handle encoding (UTF-8 -> EUC-JP) and custom pragmas
-$(BUILD_DIR)/src/%.o: CC := ./tools/preprocess.sh -v $(VERSION) -- $(CC)
+$(BUILD_DIR)/src/%.o: CC := ./tools/preprocess.sh -v $(VERSION) -i $(ICONV) -- $(CC)
 endif
 
 else
diff --git a/docs/BUILDING_MACOS.md b/docs/BUILDING_MACOS.md
index af58ac3fce..46f486bc02 100644
--- a/docs/BUILDING_MACOS.md
+++ b/docs/BUILDING_MACOS.md
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ You can install them with the following commands:
 
 ```bash
 brew update
-brew install coreutils make python3 libpng bash clang-format libxml2
+brew install coreutils make python3 libpng bash clang-format libxml2 libiconv
 ```
 
 (The repository expects Homebrew-installed programs to be either linked correctly in `$PATH` etc. or in their default locations.)
diff --git a/tools/preprocess.sh b/tools/preprocess.sh
index dc327c09c3..f5691d8f32 100755
--- a/tools/preprocess.sh
+++ b/tools/preprocess.sh
@@ -4,7 +4,9 @@
 # SPDX-License-Identifier: CC0-1.0
 
 # Usage: preprocess [flags] -- [compile command minus input file...] [single input file]
-# Flags: -v OOT_VERSION (required)
+# Flags:
+#   -v OOT_VERSION (required)
+#   -i ICONV_PATH (optional, default: iconv)
 # Preprocess a C file to:
 # * Re-encode from UTF-8 to EUC-JP
 #   (the repo uses UTF-8 for text encoding, but the strings in the ROM are encoded in EUC-JP)
@@ -39,12 +41,17 @@ then
     echo srcfile="$srcfile"
 fi
 
-while getopts "v:" opt "${flags[@]}"
+ICONV=iconv
+
+while getopts "v:i:" opt "${flags[@]}"
 do
     case $opt in
         v)
             OOT_VERSION=$OPTARG
             ;;
+        i)
+            ICONV=$OPTARG
+            ;;
         ?)
             echo "Error: Bad flags"
             exit 1
@@ -76,7 +83,7 @@ trap "rm -rf $tempdir" EXIT
 {
     printf '#line 1 "%s"\n' "$srcfile"  # linemarker
     ./tools/preprocess_pragmas $OOT_VERSION "$srcfile" < "$srcfile"
-} | iconv -f UTF-8 -t EUC-JP > "$tempfile"
+} | "${ICONV}" -f UTF-8 -t EUC-JP > "$tempfile"
 
 # Also include the source file's directory to have the include path as if we compiled the original source.
 # Pass the processed temporary file for compilation.