diff --git a/js/deps/highlight.js b/js/deps/highlight.js
index c7ccd48a77..f6bda3ed52 100644
--- a/js/deps/highlight.js
+++ b/js/deps/highlight.js
@@ -1127,6 +1127,43 @@ hljs.registerLanguage('javascript', function(hljs) {
   };
 });
 
+hljs.registerLanguage('json', function(hljs) {
+  var LITERALS = {literal: 'true false null'};
+  var TYPES = [
+    hljs.QUOTE_STRING_MODE,
+    hljs.C_NUMBER_MODE
+  ];
+  var VALUE_CONTAINER = {
+    end: ',', endsWithParent: true, excludeEnd: true,
+    contains: TYPES,
+    keywords: LITERALS
+  };
+  var OBJECT = {
+    begin: '{', end: '}',
+    contains: [
+      {
+        className: 'attr',
+        begin: /"/, end: /"/,
+        contains: [hljs.BACKSLASH_ESCAPE],
+        illegal: '\\n',
+      },
+      hljs.inherit(VALUE_CONTAINER, {begin: /:/})
+    ],
+    illegal: '\\S'
+  };
+  var ARRAY = {
+    begin: '\\[', end: '\\]',
+    contains: [hljs.inherit(VALUE_CONTAINER)], // inherit is a workaround for a bug that makes shared modes with endsWithParent compile only the ending of one of the parents
+    illegal: '\\S'
+  };
+  TYPES.splice(TYPES.length, 0, OBJECT, ARRAY);
+  return {
+    contains: TYPES,
+    keywords: LITERALS,
+    illegal: '\\S'
+  };
+});
+
 hljs.registerLanguage('xml', function(hljs) {
   var XML_IDENT_RE = '[A-Za-z0-9\\._:-]+';
   var TAG_INTERNALS = {
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index ad35399f6b..4530a46da6 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@
   },
   "scripts": {
     "build": "npm run copydeps && npm run hb:build && npm run build:highlight && npm run build:respec-w3c-common",
-    "build:highlight": "cd node_modules/highlight.js/ && npm install && node ./tools/build.js -n xml javascript css http markdown xquery && cd ../../",
+    "build:highlight": "cd node_modules/highlight.js/ && npm install && node ./tools/build.js -n xml javascript css http markdown xquery json && cd ../../",
     "build:respec-w3c-common": "./tools/build-w3c-common.js",
     "jscs": "jscs --esnext tests tools js/core/markdown.js js/core/utils.js js/w3c/linter.js",
     "jscs:fix": "jscs --esnext --fix tests",