diff --git a/cmd/kube-controller-manager/controller-manager.go b/cmd/kube-controller-manager/controller-manager.go
index 8767aaf6974..39d1363deb6 100644
--- a/cmd/kube-controller-manager/controller-manager.go
+++ b/cmd/kube-controller-manager/controller-manager.go
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ import (
 
 	cliflag "k8s.io/component-base/cli/flag"
 	"k8s.io/component-base/logs"
+	_ "k8s.io/component-base/logs/json/register"          // for JSON log format registration
 	_ "k8s.io/component-base/metrics/prometheus/clientgo" // load all the prometheus client-go plugin
 	_ "k8s.io/component-base/metrics/prometheus/version"  // for version metric registration
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kube-controller-manager/app"