diff --git a/CONTRIBUTORS.txt b/CONTRIBUTORS.txt
index 14a4d929690..5c8c7750ff4 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTORS.txt
+++ b/CONTRIBUTORS.txt
@@ -76,6 +76,7 @@ Julien Duponchelle
 Junjie Tao
 Justas Trimailovas
 Kay Zheng
+Kimmo Parviainen-Jalanko
 Kirill Klenov
 Kirill Malovitsa
 Kyrylo Perevozchikov
diff --git a/aiohttp/client_reqrep.py b/aiohttp/client_reqrep.py
index 57cd2e8e1e5..2972050d02d 100644
--- a/aiohttp/client_reqrep.py
+++ b/aiohttp/client_reqrep.py
@@ -728,7 +728,11 @@ def _get_encoding(self):
 
         encoding = params.get('charset')
         if not encoding:
-            encoding = chardet.detect(self._content)['encoding']
+            if mtype == 'application' and stype == 'json':
+                # RFC 7159 states that the default encoding is UTF-8.
+                encoding = 'utf-8'
+            else:
+                encoding = chardet.detect(self._content)['encoding']
         if not encoding:
             encoding = 'utf-8'
 
diff --git a/tests/test_client_response.py b/tests/test_client_response.py
index 5ba9c3d4c28..646918067b3 100644
--- a/tests/test_client_response.py
+++ b/tests/test_client_response.py
@@ -171,7 +171,7 @@ def side_effect(*args, **kwargs):
         fut.set_result('{"тест": "пройден"}'.encode('cp1251'))
         return fut
 
-    response.headers = {'Content-Type': 'application/json'}
+    response.headers = {'Content-Type': 'text/plain'}
     content = response.content = mock.Mock()
     content.read.side_effect = side_effect
 
@@ -275,25 +275,6 @@ def side_effect(*args, **kwargs):
     assert not response._get_encoding.called
 
 
-@asyncio.coroutine
-def test_json_detect_encoding(loop):
-    response = ClientResponse('get', URL('http://def-cl-resp.org'))
-    response._post_init(loop)
-
-    def side_effect(*args, **kwargs):
-        fut = helpers.create_future(loop)
-        fut.set_result('{"тест": "пройден"}'.encode('cp1251'))
-        return fut
-
-    response.headers = {'Content-Type': 'application/json'}
-    content = response.content = mock.Mock()
-    content.read.side_effect = side_effect
-
-    res = yield from response.json()
-    assert res == {'тест': 'пройден'}
-    assert response._connection is None
-
-
 def test_override_flow_control(loop):
     class MyResponse(ClientResponse):
         flow_control_class = aiohttp.StreamReader