diff --git a/benchmark/benchmark-pandoc.hs b/benchmark/benchmark-pandoc.hs
index 2990bed87..482293ab0 100644
--- a/benchmark/benchmark-pandoc.hs
+++ b/benchmark/benchmark-pandoc.hs
@@ -1,8 +1,6 @@
 import Text.Pandoc
-import Text.Pandoc.Shared (normalize)
 import Criterion.Main
 import Criterion.Config
-import Text.JSON.Generic
 import System.Environment (getArgs)
 import Data.Monoid
 
@@ -26,11 +24,6 @@ writerBench :: Pandoc
 writerBench doc (name, writer) = bench (name ++ " writer") $ nf
     (writer def{ writerWrapText = True }) doc
 
-normalizeBench :: Pandoc -> [Benchmark]
-normalizeBench doc = [ bench "normalize - with" $ nf (encodeJSON . normalize) doc
-                     , bench "normalize - without" $ nf encodeJSON doc
-                     ]
-
 main :: IO ()
 main = do
   args <- getArgs
@@ -42,5 +35,5 @@ main = do
   let readerBs = map (readerBench doc) readers
   let writers' = [(n,w) | (n, PureStringWriter w) <- writers]
   defaultMainWith conf (return ()) $
-    map (writerBench doc) writers' ++ readerBs ++ normalizeBench doc
+    map (writerBench doc) writers' ++ readerBs
 
diff --git a/pandoc.cabal b/pandoc.cabal
index e417d9ece..c67221750 100644
--- a/pandoc.cabal
+++ b/pandoc.cabal
@@ -247,7 +247,7 @@ Library
                  extensible-exceptions >= 0.1 && < 0.2,
                  citeproc-hs >= 0.3.7 && < 0.4,
                  pandoc-types >= 1.10 && < 1.11,
-                 json >= 0.4 && < 0.8,
+                 aeson >= 0.6 && < 0.7,
                  tagsoup >= 0.12.5 && < 0.13,
                  base64-bytestring >= 0.1 && < 1.1,
                  zlib >= 0.5 && < 0.6,
@@ -438,8 +438,7 @@ benchmark benchmark-pandoc
   Build-Depends:   pandoc,
                    base >= 4.2 && < 5,
                    syb >= 0.1 && < 0.5,
-                   criterion >= 0.5 && < 0.9,
-                   json >= 0.4 && < 0.8
+                   criterion >= 0.5 && < 0.9
   if impl(ghc >= 7.0.1)
     Ghc-Options:   -rtsopts -Wall -fno-warn-unused-do-bind
   else
diff --git a/src/Text/Pandoc.hs b/src/Text/Pandoc.hs
index 3de3d10fe..5f5c893d8 100644
--- a/src/Text/Pandoc.hs
+++ b/src/Text/Pandoc.hs
@@ -145,13 +145,16 @@ import Text.Pandoc.Templates
 import Text.Pandoc.Options
 import Text.Pandoc.Shared (safeRead, warn)
 import Data.ByteString.Lazy (ByteString)
+import qualified Data.ByteString.Lazy as BL
 import Data.List (intercalate, isSuffixOf)
 import Data.Version (showVersion)
-import Text.JSON.Generic
+import Data.Aeson.Generic
 import Data.Set (Set)
+import Data.Data
 import qualified Data.Set as Set
 import Text.Parsec
 import Text.Parsec.Error
+import qualified Text.Pandoc.UTF8 as UTF8
 import Paths_pandoc (version)
 
 -- | Version number of pandoc library.
@@ -188,7 +191,8 @@ markdown o s = do
 -- | Association list of formats and readers.
 readers :: [(String, ReaderOptions -> String -> IO Pandoc)]
 readers = [("native"       , \_ s -> return $ readNative s)
-          ,("json"         , \_ s -> return $ decodeJSON s)
+          ,("json"         , \_ s -> return $ checkJSON
+                                            $ decode $ UTF8.fromStringLazy s)
           ,("markdown"     , markdown)
           ,("markdown_strict" , markdown)
           ,("markdown_phpextra" , markdown)
@@ -212,7 +216,7 @@ data Writer = PureStringWriter   (WriterOptions -> Pandoc -> String)
 writers :: [ ( String, Writer ) ]
 writers = [
    ("native"       , PureStringWriter writeNative)
-  ,("json"         , PureStringWriter $ \_ -> encodeJSON)
+  ,("json"         , PureStringWriter $ \_ -> UTF8.toStringLazy . encode)
   ,("docx"         , IOByteStringWriter writeDocx)
   ,("odt"          , IOByteStringWriter writeODT)
   ,("epub"         , IOByteStringWriter $ \o ->
@@ -304,7 +308,7 @@ getWriter s =
 -- that reads and writes a JSON-encoded string.  This is useful
 -- for writing small scripts.
 jsonFilter :: (Pandoc -> Pandoc) -> String -> String
-jsonFilter f = encodeJSON . f . decodeJSON
+jsonFilter f = UTF8.toStringLazy . encode . f . checkJSON . decode . UTF8.fromStringLazy
 
 -- | 'toJsonFilter' convert a function into a filter that reads pandoc's json output
 -- from stdin, transforms it by walking the AST and applying the specified
@@ -333,18 +337,25 @@ class ToJsonFilter a where
   toJsonFilter :: a -> IO ()
 
 instance (Data a) => ToJsonFilter (a -> a) where
-  toJsonFilter f = getContents
-    >>= putStr . encodeJSON . (bottomUp f :: Pandoc -> Pandoc) . decodeJSON
+  toJsonFilter f = BL.getContents >>=
+    BL.putStr . encode . (bottomUp f :: Pandoc -> Pandoc) . checkJSON . decode
 
 instance (Data a) => ToJsonFilter (a -> IO a) where
-  toJsonFilter f = getContents >>= (bottomUpM f :: Pandoc -> IO Pandoc) . decodeJSON
-    >>= putStr . encodeJSON
+  toJsonFilter f = BL.getContents >>=
+     (bottomUpM f :: Pandoc -> IO Pandoc) . checkJSON . decode >>=
+     BL.putStr . encode
 
 instance (Data a) => ToJsonFilter (a -> [a]) where
-  toJsonFilter f = getContents
-    >>= putStr . encodeJSON . (bottomUp (concatMap f) :: Pandoc -> Pandoc) . decodeJSON
+  toJsonFilter f = BL.getContents >>=
+    BL.putStr . encode . (bottomUp (concatMap f) :: Pandoc -> Pandoc) .
+      checkJSON . decode
 
 instance (Data a) => ToJsonFilter (a -> IO [a]) where
-  toJsonFilter f = getContents
-    >>= (bottomUpM (fmap concat . mapM f) :: Pandoc -> IO Pandoc) . decodeJSON
-    >>= putStr . encodeJSON
+  toJsonFilter f = BL.getContents >>=
+    (bottomUpM (fmap concat . mapM f) :: Pandoc -> IO Pandoc)
+      . checkJSON . decode >>=
+    BL.putStr . encode
+
+checkJSON :: Maybe a -> a
+checkJSON Nothing  = error "Error parsing JSON"
+checkJSON (Just r) = r