Unlike Ruby source file encoding (script encoding) whose default is
changed to UTF-8 in Ruby 2.0 (Feature #6679), template's file encoding
given to erb(1) has been ASCII-8BIT since ERB supports m17n at r21170.
Like Ruby source file encoding, erb template file encoding should be
UTF-8 in Ruby 2.
First of all, -U option of erb(1) is just the same as ruby(1)'s one, which sets both external and internal encoding to UTF-8. As those encodings are for IO, -U (or -E) is not related to the described behavior.
The actual cause that matters is source file encoding (script encoding, which affects encoding of string literal in the file) counterpart for erb(1) command. As m17n of erb(1) is implemented in Ruby 1.9, it's the same as Ruby 1.9's default source file encoding: ASCII-8BIT. But Ruby 2's default source file encoding is changed to UTF-8, I thought erb(1)'s one should be changed in the same way. Thus I fixed it in r60739.
Thank you for quick fix and your answer, I've tried the magic comment thing base on what I googled, to be precise <% # -*- coding: UTF-8 -*- %> which didn't work. Your version <%# coding: UTF-8 %> does work so I can now use ?猫 without getting parser error. Yeeey!