diff --git a/sequencer.c b/sequencer.c
index 4960a26ac3..9d5964fd81 100644
--- a/sequencer.c
+++ b/sequencer.c
@@ -4598,18 +4598,8 @@ static int make_script_with_merges(struct pretty_print_context *pp,
 		else
 			strbuf_addbuf(&label, &oneline);
 
-		/*
-		 * Sanitize labels by replacing non-alpha-numeric characters
-		 * (including white-space ones) by dashes, as they might be
-		 * illegal in file names (and hence in ref names).
-		 *
-		 * Note that we retain non-ASCII UTF-8 characters (identified
-		 * via the most significant bit). They should be all acceptable
-		 * in file names. We do not validate the UTF-8 here, that's not
-		 * the job of this function.
-		 */
 		for (p1 = label.buf; *p1; p1++)
-			if (!(*p1 & 0x80) && !isalnum(*p1))
+			if (isspace(*p1))
 				*(char *)p1 = '-';
 
 		strbuf_reset(&buf);
diff --git a/t/t3430-rebase-merges.sh b/t/t3430-rebase-merges.sh
index f728aba995..9efcf4808a 100755
--- a/t/t3430-rebase-merges.sh
+++ b/t/t3430-rebase-merges.sh
@@ -468,10 +468,4 @@ test_expect_success '--rebase-merges with strategies' '
 	test_cmp expect G.t
 '
 
-test_expect_success '--rebase-merges with commit that can generate bad characters for filename' '
-	git checkout -b colon-in-label E &&
-	git merge -m "colon: this should work" G &&
-	git rebase --rebase-merges --force-rebase E
-'
-
 test_done