diff --git a/src/json.c b/src/json.c
index b046d34f66..1fc976214d 100644
--- a/src/json.c
+++ b/src/json.c
@@ -219,8 +219,7 @@ json_has_suffix (const char *string, const char *suffix)
 static Lisp_Object
 json_make_string (const char *data, ptrdiff_t size)
 {
-  return code_convert_string (make_specified_string (data, -1, size, false),
-                              Qutf_8_unix, Qt, false, true, true);
+  return make_specified_string (data, -1, size, false);
 }
 
 /* Create a multibyte Lisp string from the null-terminated UTF-8