diff --git a/elasticsearch/connection/base.py b/elasticsearch/connection/base.py
index 50822c70..56ebb877 100644
--- a/elasticsearch/connection/base.py
+++ b/elasticsearch/connection/base.py
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 import logging
-import json
+try:
+    import simplejson as json
+except ImportError:
+    import json
 
 from ..exceptions import TransportError, HTTP_EXCEPTIONS
 
diff --git a/elasticsearch/connection/memcached.py b/elasticsearch/connection/memcached.py
index bc1ff1e3..3adc89f7 100644
--- a/elasticsearch/connection/memcached.py
+++ b/elasticsearch/connection/memcached.py
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 import time
-import json
+try:
+    import simplejson as json
+except ImportError:
+    import json
 
 from ..exceptions import TransportError, ConnectionError, ImproperlyConfigured
 from ..compat import urlencode
diff --git a/elasticsearch/serializer.py b/elasticsearch/serializer.py
index 0bc2c5b9..a9084ea1 100644
--- a/elasticsearch/serializer.py
+++ b/elasticsearch/serializer.py
@@ -1,4 +1,7 @@
-import json
+try:
+    import simplejson as json
+except ImportError:
+    import json
 from datetime import date, datetime
 from decimal import Decimal