diff --git a/core/docker/default/etc/jvm.config b/core/docker/default/etc/jvm.config
index 0a6bca1bc2f..9d1a5afd54d 100644
--- a/core/docker/default/etc/jvm.config
+++ b/core/docker/default/etc/jvm.config
@@ -17,3 +17,7 @@
 -XX:GCLockerRetryAllocationCount=32
 # Allow loading dynamic agent used by JOL
 -XX:+EnableDynamicAgentLoading
+# Trino server behavior does generally not depend on locale settings.
+# Use en_US as this is what Trino is tested with.
+-Duser.language=en
+-Duser.region=US
diff --git a/core/trino-main/src/main/java/io/trino/server/TrinoSystemRequirements.java b/core/trino-main/src/main/java/io/trino/server/TrinoSystemRequirements.java
index d3ec3cba179..462cc7bdb33 100644
--- a/core/trino-main/src/main/java/io/trino/server/TrinoSystemRequirements.java
+++ b/core/trino-main/src/main/java/io/trino/server/TrinoSystemRequirements.java
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@ final class TrinoSystemRequirements
 {
     private static final int MIN_FILE_DESCRIPTORS = 4096;
     private static final int RECOMMENDED_FILE_DESCRIPTORS = 8192;
+    private static final Locale EN_US = Locale.of("en", "US");
 
     private TrinoSystemRequirements() {}
 
@@ -52,6 +53,7 @@ public static void verifyJvmRequirements()
         verifyFileDescriptor();
         verifySlice();
         verifyUtf8();
+        verifyLocale();
     }
 
     private static void verify64BitJvm()
@@ -162,6 +164,14 @@ private static void verifyUtf8()
         }
     }
 
+    private static void verifyLocale()
+    {
+        Locale defaultLocale = Locale.getDefault();
+        if (!defaultLocale.equals(EN_US)) {
+            failRequirement("Trino requires that the default locale is ENGLISH (found %s). This can be set with the JVM command line option -Duser.language=en -Duser.region=US", defaultLocale);
+        }
+    }
+
     /**
      * Perform a sanity check to make sure that the year is reasonably current, to guard against
      * issues in third party libraries.
diff --git a/core/trino-server-rpm/src/main/resources/dist/config/jvm.config b/core/trino-server-rpm/src/main/resources/dist/config/jvm.config
index f9d739fbd3a..49bf611a9e9 100644
--- a/core/trino-server-rpm/src/main/resources/dist/config/jvm.config
+++ b/core/trino-server-rpm/src/main/resources/dist/config/jvm.config
@@ -16,3 +16,7 @@
 -XX:GCLockerRetryAllocationCount=32
 # Allow loading dynamic agent used by JOL
 -XX:+EnableDynamicAgentLoading
+# Trino server behavior does generally not depend on locale settings.
+# Use en_US as this is what Trino is tested with.
+-Duser.language=en
+-Duser.region=US
diff --git a/docs/src/main/sphinx/installation/deployment.md b/docs/src/main/sphinx/installation/deployment.md
index 71514738ba6..9ec52368280 100644
--- a/docs/src/main/sphinx/installation/deployment.md
+++ b/docs/src/main/sphinx/installation/deployment.md
@@ -147,6 +147,10 @@ The following provides a good starting point for creating `etc/jvm.config`:
 -XX:GCLockerRetryAllocationCount=32
 # Allow loading dynamic agent used by JOL
 -XX:+EnableDynamicAgentLoading
+# Trino server behavior does generally not depend on locale settings.
+# Use en_US as this is what Trino is tested with.
+-Duser.language=en
+-Duser.region=US
 ```
 
 You must adjust the value for the memory used by Trino, specified with `-Xmx`
diff --git a/testing/trino-product-tests-launcher/src/main/resources/docker/presto-product-tests/conf/environment/multinode-all/jvm.config b/testing/trino-product-tests-launcher/src/main/resources/docker/presto-product-tests/conf/environment/multinode-all/jvm.config
index 13a9f69d585..67e8936000b 100644
--- a/testing/trino-product-tests-launcher/src/main/resources/docker/presto-product-tests/conf/environment/multinode-all/jvm.config
+++ b/testing/trino-product-tests-launcher/src/main/resources/docker/presto-product-tests/conf/environment/multinode-all/jvm.config
@@ -17,3 +17,7 @@
 -XX:ErrorFile=/docker/logs/product-tests-presto-jvm-error-file.log
 # Allow loading dynamic agent used by JOL
 -XX:+EnableDynamicAgentLoading
+# Trino server behavior does generally not depend on locale settings.
+# Use en_US as this is what Trino is tested with.
+-Duser.language=en
+-Duser.region=US
diff --git a/testing/trino-product-tests-launcher/src/main/resources/docker/presto-product-tests/conf/presto/etc/jvm.config b/testing/trino-product-tests-launcher/src/main/resources/docker/presto-product-tests/conf/presto/etc/jvm.config
index 313933a433b..95aab794828 100644
--- a/testing/trino-product-tests-launcher/src/main/resources/docker/presto-product-tests/conf/presto/etc/jvm.config
+++ b/testing/trino-product-tests-launcher/src/main/resources/docker/presto-product-tests/conf/presto/etc/jvm.config
@@ -16,3 +16,7 @@
 -XX:ErrorFile=/docker/logs/product-tests-presto-jvm-error-file.log
 # Allow loading dynamic agent used by JOL
 -XX:+EnableDynamicAgentLoading
+# Trino server behavior does generally not depend on locale settings.
+# Use en_US as this is what Trino is tested with.
+-Duser.language=en
+-Duser.region=US