diff --git a/pkg/obiformats/json_writer.go b/pkg/obiformats/json_writer.go
index 0d4193b..4d8009d 100644
--- a/pkg/obiformats/json_writer.go
+++ b/pkg/obiformats/json_writer.go
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@ import (
 	"encoding/json"
 	"io"
 	"os"
+	"strconv"
+	"strings"
 	"sync"
 	"time"
 
@@ -15,6 +17,14 @@ import (
 	log "github.com/sirupsen/logrus"
 )
 
+func _UnescapeUnicodeCharactersInJSON(_jsonRaw []byte) ([]byte, error) {
+	str, err := strconv.Unquote(strings.Replace(strconv.Quote(string(_jsonRaw)), `\\u`, `\u`, -1))
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	return []byte(str), nil
+}
+
 func JSONRecord(sequence *obiseq.BioSequence) []byte {
 	record := make(map[string]interface{}, 4)
 
@@ -38,6 +48,12 @@ func JSONRecord(sequence *obiseq.BioSequence) []byte {
 		log.Panicf("conversion to JSON error on sequence id %s", sequence.Id())
 	}
 
+	text, error = _UnescapeUnicodeCharactersInJSON(text)
+
+	if error != nil {
+		log.Panicf("conversion to JSON error on sequence id %s", sequence.Id())
+	}
+
 	return text
 }