diff --git a/backend/run_server.py b/backend/run_server.py
index f10830c..9a85565 100644
--- a/backend/run_server.py
+++ b/backend/run_server.py
@@ -26,7 +26,8 @@ def load_config(config_path: str | None = None) -> dict:
         config_path = os.path.join(base_dir, "config.json")
 
     if os.path.exists(config_path):
-        with open(config_path, "r", encoding="utf-8") as f:
+        # Use utf-8-sig to handle Windows BOM (Byte Order Mark)
+        with open(config_path, "r", encoding="utf-8-sig") as f:
             return json.load(f)
     return {}