diff --git a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/base/package.use b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/base/package.use
index 8dee36e40f..dcd6cfc3e7 100644
--- a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/base/package.use
+++ b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/base/package.use
@@ -150,3 +150,7 @@ sys-apps/util-linux -su
 # Enable kerberos support for NFS
 net-fs/nfs-utils kerberos nfsv41 nfsv4 junction ldap libmount nfsdcld uuid
 net-libs/libtirpc kerberos
+
+# Disable enabled-by-default support for 16-bit characters, we didn't
+# need it before, so we don't need it now.
+dev-libs/libpcre2 -pcre16