diff --git a/cmd/kubelet/kubelet.go b/cmd/kubelet/kubelet.go
index d10d654df9b..16b6dc9dc4e 100644
--- a/cmd/kubelet/kubelet.go
+++ b/cmd/kubelet/kubelet.go
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ import (
 	"time"
 
 	"k8s.io/component-base/logs"
+	_ "k8s.io/component-base/logs/json/register" // for JSON log format registration
 	_ "k8s.io/component-base/metrics/prometheus/restclient"
 	_ "k8s.io/component-base/metrics/prometheus/version" // for version metric registration
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubelet/app"