diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/api/java/JavaSparkContext.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/api/java/JavaSparkContext.scala
index a678355a1cfa08507b8515522683823bd10fa4de..8a5f8088a05ca20b4a361c1ca5bd07985f058406 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/api/java/JavaSparkContext.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/api/java/JavaSparkContext.scala
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ import org.apache.spark._
 import org.apache.spark.SparkContext.{DoubleAccumulatorParam, IntAccumulatorParam}
 import org.apache.spark.api.java.JavaSparkContext.fakeClassTag
 import org.apache.spark.broadcast.Broadcast
-import org.apache.spark.rdd.RDD
+import org.apache.spark.rdd.{EmptyRDD, RDD}
 
 /**
  * A Java-friendly version of [[org.apache.spark.SparkContext]] that returns
@@ -135,6 +135,13 @@ class JavaSparkContext(val sc: SparkContext) extends JavaSparkContextVarargsWork
     sc.parallelize(JavaConversions.asScalaBuffer(list), numSlices)
   }
 
+  /** Get an RDD that has no partitions or elements. */
+  def emptyRDD[T]: JavaRDD[T] = {
+    implicit val ctag: ClassTag[T] = fakeClassTag
+    JavaRDD.fromRDD(new EmptyRDD[T](sc))
+  }
+
+
   /** Distribute a local Scala collection to form an RDD. */
   def parallelize[T](list: java.util.List[T]): JavaRDD[T] =
     parallelize(list, sc.defaultParallelism)
diff --git a/core/src/test/java/org/apache/spark/JavaAPISuite.java b/core/src/test/java/org/apache/spark/JavaAPISuite.java
index b2868b59ce6c693c07cbe0698272495ef6f3a06d..f882a8623fd841778d728e4c2681c1bd83d90a7b 100644
--- a/core/src/test/java/org/apache/spark/JavaAPISuite.java
+++ b/core/src/test/java/org/apache/spark/JavaAPISuite.java
@@ -118,8 +118,7 @@ public class JavaAPISuite implements Serializable {
     JavaRDD<Integer> intersections = s1.intersection(s2);
     Assert.assertEquals(3, intersections.count());
 
-    List<Integer> list = new ArrayList<Integer>();
-    JavaRDD<Integer> empty = sc.parallelize(list);
+    JavaRDD<Integer> empty = sc.emptyRDD();
     JavaRDD<Integer> emptyIntersection = empty.intersection(s2);
     Assert.assertEquals(0, emptyIntersection.count());
 
@@ -184,6 +183,12 @@ public class JavaAPISuite implements Serializable {
     Assert.assertEquals(new Tuple2<Integer, Integer>(3, 2), sortedPairs.get(2));
   }
 
+  @Test
+  public void emptyRDD() {
+    JavaRDD<String> rdd = sc.emptyRDD();
+    Assert.assertEquals("Empty RDD shouldn't have any values", 0, rdd.count());
+  }
+
   @Test
   public void sortBy() {
     List<Tuple2<Integer, Integer>> pairs = new ArrayList<Tuple2<Integer, Integer>>();