diff --git a/src/share/vm/prims/jni.cpp b/src/share/vm/prims/jni.cpp
index 2ddd9833b648e49ee3d8892bb9783d0539ac77fe..1fe8ab5891b0b667b396a879ae7c6d7804f09a53 100644
--- a/src/share/vm/prims/jni.cpp
+++ b/src/share/vm/prims/jni.cpp
@@ -292,15 +292,6 @@ void jfieldIDWorkaround::verify_instance_jfieldID(Klass* k, jfieldID id) {
       "Bug in native code: jfieldID offset must address interior of object");
 }
 
-// Pick a reasonable higher bound for local capacity requested
-// for EnsureLocalCapacity and PushLocalFrame.  We don't want it too
-// high because a test (or very unusual application) may try to allocate
-// that many handles and run out of swap space.  An implementation is
-// permitted to allocate more handles than the ensured capacity, so this
-// value is set high enough to prevent compatibility problems.
-const int MAX_REASONABLE_LOCAL_CAPACITY = 4*K;
-
-
 // Wrapper to trace JNI functions
 
 #ifdef ASSERT
@@ -880,7 +871,8 @@ JNI_ENTRY(jint, jni_PushLocalFrame(JNIEnv *env, jint capacity))
                                    env, capacity);
 #endif /* USDT2 */
   //%note jni_11
-  if (capacity < 0 || capacity > MAX_REASONABLE_LOCAL_CAPACITY) {
+  if (capacity < 0 ||
+      ((MaxJNILocalCapacity > 0) && (capacity > MaxJNILocalCapacity))) {
 #ifndef USDT2
     DTRACE_PROBE1(hotspot_jni, PushLocalFrame__return, JNI_ERR);
 #else /* USDT2 */
@@ -1039,7 +1031,8 @@ JNI_LEAF(jint, jni_EnsureLocalCapacity(JNIEnv *env, jint capacity))
                                         env, capacity);
 #endif /* USDT2 */
   jint ret;
-  if (capacity >= 0 && capacity <= MAX_REASONABLE_LOCAL_CAPACITY) {
+  if (capacity >= 0 &&
+      ((MaxJNILocalCapacity <= 0) || (capacity <= MaxJNILocalCapacity))) {
     ret = JNI_OK;
   } else {
     ret = JNI_ERR;
diff --git a/src/share/vm/runtime/globals.hpp b/src/share/vm/runtime/globals.hpp
index 82f61f0ff8c1816cfcf278a738f1dc735a5a50e4..f3ae7528a839f04a8a9f139b1ec70b41fea56ca1 100644
--- a/src/share/vm/runtime/globals.hpp
+++ b/src/share/vm/runtime/globals.hpp
@@ -1216,6 +1216,11 @@ class CommandLineFlags {
   product(bool, UseFastJNIAccessors, true,                                  \
           "Use optimized versions of Get<Primitive>Field")                  \
                                                                             \
+  product(intx, MaxJNILocalCapacity, 65536,                                 \
+          "Maximum allowable local JNI handle capacity to "                 \
+          "EnsureLocalCapacity() and PushLocalFrame(), "                    \
+          "where <= 0 is unlimited, default: 65536")                        \
+                                                                            \
   product(bool, EagerXrunInit, false,                                       \
           "Eagerly initialize -Xrun libraries; allows startup profiling, "  \
           "but not all -Xrun libraries may support the state of the VM "    \