diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index b275ae201b03bd..86a0928673088b 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,4 +1,7 @@
-Sat Dec  1 18:16:49 2012  Nobuyoshi Nakada  <nobu@ruby-lang.org>
+Sat Dec  1 18:16:55 2012  Nobuyoshi Nakada  <nobu@ruby-lang.org>
+
+	* object.c (Init_Object): make remove_instance_variable public.
+	  [Feature #6539]
 
 	* id.c (Init_id), template/id.h.tmpl: add initialize_{copy,clone,dup}
 	  and respond_to_missing?.
diff --git a/object.c b/object.c
index f515d48ac68c41..712d76a3df9b15 100644
--- a/object.c
+++ b/object.c
@@ -3012,8 +3012,8 @@ Init_Object(void)
     rb_define_method(rb_mKernel, "instance_variable_get", rb_obj_ivar_get, 1);
     rb_define_method(rb_mKernel, "instance_variable_set", rb_obj_ivar_set, 2);
     rb_define_method(rb_mKernel, "instance_variable_defined?", rb_obj_ivar_defined, 1);
-    rb_define_private_method(rb_mKernel, "remove_instance_variable",
-			     rb_obj_remove_instance_variable, 1); /* in variable.c */
+    rb_define_method(rb_mKernel, "remove_instance_variable",
+		     rb_obj_remove_instance_variable, 1); /* in variable.c */
 
     rb_define_method(rb_mKernel, "instance_of?", rb_obj_is_instance_of, 1);
     rb_define_method(rb_mKernel, "kind_of?", rb_obj_is_kind_of, 1);
diff --git a/test/ruby/test_object.rb b/test/ruby/test_object.rb
index 4e958a7f7bf3eb..c8b5c3b279627b 100644
--- a/test/ruby/test_object.rb
+++ b/test/ruby/test_object.rb
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+# -*- coding: us-ascii -*-
 require 'test/unit'
 require_relative 'envutil'
 
@@ -184,7 +185,7 @@ def test_instance_variable_defined
   def test_remove_instance_variable
     o = Object.new
     o.instance_eval { @foo = :foo }
-    o.instance_eval { remove_instance_variable(:@foo) }
+    o.remove_instance_variable(:@foo)
     assert_equal(false, o.instance_variable_defined?(:@foo))
   end