diff --git a/pymysql/charset.py b/pymysql/charset.py
index 1cf7d913..5e0ad89b 100644
--- a/pymysql/charset.py
+++ b/pymysql/charset.py
@@ -11,6 +11,10 @@ def __init__(self, id, name, collation, is_default):
         self.id, self.name, self.collation = id, name, collation
         self.is_default = is_default == 'Yes'
 
+    def __repr__(self):
+        return "Charset(id=%s, name=%r, collation=%r)" % (
+                self.id, self.name, self.collation)
+
     @property
     def encoding(self):
         name = self.name
diff --git a/pymysql/connections.py b/pymysql/connections.py
index 52f13f05..65dc8d2d 100644
--- a/pymysql/connections.py
+++ b/pymysql/connections.py
@@ -88,7 +88,6 @@ def _makefile(sock, mode):
     FIELD_TYPE.BLOB,
     FIELD_TYPE.LONG_BLOB,
     FIELD_TYPE.MEDIUM_BLOB,
-    FIELD_TYPE.JSON,
     FIELD_TYPE.STRING,
     FIELD_TYPE.TINY_BLOB,
     FIELD_TYPE.VAR_STRING,
@@ -407,9 +406,9 @@ class FieldDescriptorPacket(MysqlPacket):
 
     def __init__(self, data, encoding):
         MysqlPacket.__init__(self, data, encoding)
-        self.__parse_field_descriptor(encoding)
+        self._parse_field_descriptor(encoding)
 
-    def __parse_field_descriptor(self, encoding):
+    def _parse_field_descriptor(self, encoding):
         """Parse the 'Field Descriptor' (Metadata) packet.
 
         This is compatible with MySQL 4.1+ (not compatible with MySQL 4.0).
@@ -1433,21 +1432,30 @@ def _get_descriptions(self):
         self.fields = []
         self.converters = []
         use_unicode = self.connection.use_unicode
+        conn_encoding = self.connection.encoding
         description = []
+
         for i in range_type(self.field_count):
             field = self.connection._read_packet(FieldDescriptorPacket)
             self.fields.append(field)
             description.append(field.description())
             field_type = field.type_code
             if use_unicode:
-                if field_type in TEXT_TYPES:
-                    charset = charset_by_id(field.charsetnr)
-                    if charset.is_binary:
+                if field_type == FIELD_TYPE.JSON:
+                    # When SELECT from JSON column: charset = binary
+                    # When SELECT CAST(... AS JSON): charset = connection encoding
+                    # This behavior is different from TEXT / BLOB.
+                    # We should decode result by connection encoding regardless charsetnr.
+                    # See https://github.com/PyMySQL/PyMySQL/issues/488
+                    encoding = conn_encoding  # SELECT CAST(... AS JSON) 
+                elif field_type in TEXT_TYPES:
+                    if field.charsetnr == 63:  # binary
                         # TEXTs with charset=binary means BINARY types.
                         encoding = None
                     else:
-                        encoding = charset.encoding
+                        encoding = conn_encoding
                 else:
+                    # Integers, Dates and Times, and other basic data is encoded in ascii
                     encoding = 'ascii'
             else:
                 encoding = None
diff --git a/pymysql/converters.py b/pymysql/converters.py
index fc596ded..4c00bc45 100644
--- a/pymysql/converters.py
+++ b/pymysql/converters.py
@@ -333,12 +333,6 @@ def convert_set(s):
     return set(s.split(","))
 
 
-def convert_json(b):
-    # JSON is returned as binary data.
-    # Decode with utf-8 regardless connection encoding.
-    return b.decode('utf-8')
-
-
 def through(x):
     return x
 
@@ -416,7 +410,6 @@ def convert_characters(connection, field, data):
     FIELD_TYPE.VARCHAR: through,
     FIELD_TYPE.DECIMAL: Decimal,
     FIELD_TYPE.NEWDECIMAL: Decimal,
-    FIELD_TYPE.JSON: convert_json,
 }
 
 
diff --git a/pymysql/tests/test_basic.py b/pymysql/tests/test_basic.py
index 52d9c7ff..67f11447 100644
--- a/pymysql/tests/test_basic.py
+++ b/pymysql/tests/test_basic.py
@@ -253,12 +253,17 @@ def test_json(self):
     primary key (id)
 );""")
         cur = conn.cursor()
+
         json_str = u'{"hello": "こんにちは"}'
         cur.execute("INSERT INTO test_json (id, `json`) values (42, %s)", (json_str,))
         cur.execute("SELECT `json` from `test_json` WHERE `id`=42")
         res = cur.fetchone()[0]
         self.assertEqual(json.loads(res), json.loads(json_str))
 
+        cur.execute("SELECT CAST(%s AS JSON) AS x", (json_str,))
+        res = cur.fetchone()[0]
+        self.assertEqual(json.loads(res), json.loads(json_str))
+
 
 class TestBulkInserts(base.PyMySQLTestCase):