diff --git a/frontends/src/jp/cmd_debug.py b/frontends/src/jp/cmd_debug.py
index ea87542b..ac737e66 100644
--- a/frontends/src/jp/cmd_debug.py
+++ b/frontends/src/jp/cmd_debug.py
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ class BridgeCommon(object):
             except SyntaxError as e:
                 self.disp(u"Can't evaluate arguments: {mess}\n{text}\n{offset}^".format(
                     mess=e,
-                    text=e.text,
+                    text=e.text.decode('utf-8'),
                     offset=u" "*(e.offset-1)
                     ), error=True)
                 self.host.quit(C.EXIT_BAD_ARG)
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ class Method(base.CommandBase, BridgeCommon):
 
     def add_parser_options(self):
         self.parser.add_argument("method", type=str, help=_(u"name of the method to execute"))
-        self.parser.add_argument("arg", nargs="*", help=_(u"argument of the method"))
+        self.parser.add_argument("arg", type=base.unicode_decoder, nargs="*", help=_(u"argument of the method"))
 
     def method_cb(self, ret):
         self.disp(unicode(ret))
@@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ class Signal(base.CommandBase, BridgeCommon):
 
     def add_parser_options(self):
         self.parser.add_argument("signal", type=str, help=_(u"name of the signal to send"))
-        self.parser.add_argument("arg", nargs="*", help=_(u"argument of the signal"))
+        self.parser.add_argument("arg", type=base.unicode_decoder, nargs="*", help=_(u"argument of the signal"))
 
     def start(self):
         args = self.evalArgs()