<h4 dir="auto">Code Sample, a copy-pastable example if possible</h4>
<div class="highlight highlight-source-python notranslate position-relative overflow-auto" dir="auto" data-snippet-clipboard-copy-content="# not working
pd.read_json(path, encoding='cp1251')

# that works
import json 
with open(path, 'r') as f:
    js = json.load(f, encoding='cp1251')
pd.DataFrame(js)"><pre class="notranslate"><span class="pl-c"># not working</span>
<span class="pl-s1">pd</span>.<span class="pl-en">read_json</span>(<span class="pl-s1">path</span>, <span class="pl-s1">encoding</span><span class="pl-c1">=</span><span class="pl-s">'cp1251'</span>)

<span class="pl-c"># that works</span>
<span class="pl-k">import</span> <span class="pl-s1">json</span> 
<span class="pl-k">with</span> <span class="pl-en">open</span>(<span class="pl-s1">path</span>, <span class="pl-s">'r'</span>) <span class="pl-k">as</span> <span class="pl-s1">f</span>:
    <span class="pl-s1">js</span> <span class="pl-c1">=</span> <span class="pl-s1">json</span>.<span class="pl-en">load</span>(<span class="pl-s1">f</span>, <span class="pl-s1">encoding</span><span class="pl-c1">=</span><span class="pl-s">'cp1251'</span>)
<span class="pl-s1">pd</span>.<span class="pl-v">DataFrame</span>(<span class="pl-s1">js</span>)</pre></div>
<h4 dir="auto">Problem description</h4>
<p dir="auto">It is not mentioned explicitly in docstring that <code class="notranslate">encoding</code> option used in py3 only.</p>
<p dir="auto">Currently <code class="notranslate">pd.read_json</code> mostly ignores <code class="notranslate">encoding=</code> option in python2.<br>
Function <code class="notranslate">pd.common._get_handle</code> warns about using encoding with compression, but silently continues without actually using <code class="notranslate">encoding</code> otherwise.</p>
<p dir="auto">It looks like subtasks are split in unfavourable way to pass encoding up to <code class="notranslate">json.loads</code> call.</p>
<h4 dir="auto">Expected Output</h4>
<p dir="auto">One might expect pandas use encoding, to get life easier (as pandas usually do ;) ).<br>
Or at least properly warn that option is ignored.</p>
<h4 dir="auto">Output of <code class="notranslate">pd.show_versions()</code></h4>
<details>
INSTALLED VERSIONS
------------------
commit: None
python: 2.7.12.final.0
python-bits: 64
OS: Windows
OS-release: 7
machine: AMD64
processor: Intel64 Family 6 Model 58 Stepping 9, GenuineIntel
byteorder: little
LC_ALL: None
LANG: None
LOCALE: None.None
<p dir="auto">pandas: 0.19.2<br>
nose: 1.3.7<br>
pip: 9.0.1<br>
setuptools: 28.8.0.post20161110<br>
Cython: 0.24.1<br>
numpy: 1.12.0<br>
scipy: 0.18.1<br>
statsmodels: 0.6.1<br>
xarray: None<br>
IPython: 5.1.0<br>
sphinx: 1.4.6<br>
patsy: 0.4.1<br>
dateutil: 2.5.3<br>
pytz: 2016.6.1<br>
blosc: None<br>
bottleneck: 1.0.0<br>
tables: 3.2.2<br>
numexpr: 2.6.2<br>
matplotlib: 2.0.0<br>
openpyxl: 2.3.2<br>
xlrd: 1.0.0<br>
xlwt: 1.1.2<br>
xlsxwriter: 0.9.2<br>
lxml: 3.6.4<br>
bs4: 4.3.2<br>
html5lib: None<br>
httplib2: None<br>
apiclient: None<br>
sqlalchemy: 1.0.13<br>
pymysql: 0.7.6.None<br>
psycopg2: None<br>
jinja2: 2.8<br>
boto: 2.40.0<br>
pandas_datareader: None</p>
</details>
<p dir="auto">xref <a class="issue-link js-issue-link" data-error-text="Failed to load title" data-id="158265190" data-permission-text="Title is private" data-url="https://github.com/pandas-dev/pandas/issues/13351" data-hovercard-type="pull_request" data-hovercard-url="/pandas-dev/pandas/pull/13351/hovercard" href="https://github.com/pandas-dev/pandas/pull/13351">#13351</a></p>
<p dir="auto"><a href="https://github.com/pydata/pandas/commit/964b7bba7f5878c79130479f75461c58dd0c4b3e">Here's the test</a>, currently skipped</p>