The tensor charges of the nucleon are calculated in the framework of the SU(3) chiral quark soliton model. The rotational 1/N c and strange quark mass corrections are taken into account up to linear order. We obtain the following numerical values of the tensor charges: δu = 1.12, δd = −0.42, and δs = −0.008. In contrast to the axial charges, the tensor charges in our model are closer to those of the nonrelativistic quark model, in particular, the net number of the transversely polarized strange quarks in a transversely polarized nucleon δs is compatible with zero.