diff --git a/formats/json-okio/commonMain/src/kotlinx/serialization/json/okio/internal/OkioJsonStreams.kt b/formats/json-okio/commonMain/src/kotlinx/serialization/json/okio/internal/OkioJsonStreams.kt
index ae8de4719..6d3c6c6dd 100644
--- a/formats/json-okio/commonMain/src/kotlinx/serialization/json/okio/internal/OkioJsonStreams.kt
+++ b/formats/json-okio/commonMain/src/kotlinx/serialization/json/okio/internal/OkioJsonStreams.kt
@@ -46,12 +46,54 @@ internal class JsonToOkioStreamWriter(private val target: BufferedSink) : JsonWr
     }
 }
 
+// Max value for a code  point placed in one Char
+private const val SINGLE_CHAR_MAX_CODEPOINT = Char.MAX_VALUE.code
+// Value added to the high UTF-16 surrogate after shifting
+private const val HIGH_SURROGATE_HEADER = 0xd800 - (0x010000 ushr 10)
+// Value added to the low UTF-16 surrogate after masking
+private const val LOW_SURROGATE_HEADER = 0xdc00
+
+
 internal class OkioSerialReader(private val source: BufferedSource): SerialReader {
+    /*
+    A sequence of code points is read from UTF-8, some of it can take 2 characters.
+    In case the last code point requires 2 characters, and the array is already full, we buffer the second character
+     */
+    private var bufferedChar: Char? = null
+
     override fun read(buffer: CharArray, bufferOffset: Int, count: Int): Int {
         var i = 0
-        while (i < count && !source.exhausted()) {
-            buffer[bufferOffset + i] = source.readUtf8CodePoint().toChar()
+
+        if (bufferedChar != null) {
+            buffer[bufferOffset + i] = bufferedChar!!
             i++
+            bufferedChar = null
+        }
+
+        while (i < count && !source.exhausted()) {
+            val codePoint = source.readUtf8CodePoint()
+            if (codePoint <= SINGLE_CHAR_MAX_CODEPOINT) {
+                buffer[bufferOffset + i] = codePoint.toChar()
+                i++
+            } else {
+                // an example of working with surrogates is taken from okio library with minor changes, see https://github.com/square/okio
+                // UTF-16 high surrogate: 110110xxxxxxxxxx (10 bits)
+                // UTF-16 low surrogate:  110111yyyyyyyyyy (10 bits)
+                // Unicode code point:    00010000000000000000 + xxxxxxxxxxyyyyyyyyyy (21 bits)
+                val upChar = ((codePoint ushr 10) + HIGH_SURROGATE_HEADER).toChar()
+                val lowChar = ((codePoint and 0x03ff) + LOW_SURROGATE_HEADER).toChar()
+
+                buffer[bufferOffset + i] = upChar
+                i++
+
+                if (i < count) {
+                    buffer[bufferOffset + i] = lowChar
+                    i++
+                } else {
+                        // if char array is full - buffer lower surrogate
+                    bufferedChar = lowChar
+                }
+            }
         }
         return if (i > 0) i else -1
     }
diff --git a/formats/json-tests/commonTest/src/kotlinx/serialization/features/EmojiTest.kt b/formats/json-tests/commonTest/src/kotlinx/serialization/features/EmojiTest.kt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..1e3904ab2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/formats/json-tests/commonTest/src/kotlinx/serialization/features/EmojiTest.kt
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2017-2022 JetBrains s.r.o. Use of this source code is governed by the Apache 2.0 license.
+ */
+
+package kotlinx.serialization.features
+
+import kotlinx.serialization.builtins.serializer
+import kotlinx.serialization.json.JsonTestBase
+import kotlin.test.Test
+
+
+class EmojiTest : JsonTestBase() {
+
+    @Test
+    fun testEmojiString() {
+        assertJsonFormAndRestored(
+            String.serializer(),
+            "\uD83C\uDF34",
+            "\"\uD83C\uDF34\""
+        )
+    }
+}
diff --git a/formats/json-tests/jvmTest/src/kotlinx/serialization/test/JsonHelpers.kt b/formats/json-tests/jvmTest/src/kotlinx/serialization/test/JsonHelpers.kt
index ebb49c356..9220bbd32 100644
--- a/formats/json-tests/jvmTest/src/kotlinx/serialization/test/JsonHelpers.kt
+++ b/formats/json-tests/jvmTest/src/kotlinx/serialization/test/JsonHelpers.kt
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ actual fun <T> Json.encodeViaStream(
 ): String {
     val output = ByteArrayOutputStream()
     encodeToStream(serializer, value, output)
-    return output.toString()
+    return output.toString(Charsets.UTF_8.name())
 }
 
 actual fun <T> Json.decodeViaStream(