diff --git a/activesupport/lib/active_support/json/encoding.rb b/activesupport/lib/active_support/json/encoding.rb
index 48f496789279812870e1d91127104d5caf1edcfb..031c5e9339072d8ed4530f9315f107931ea44f9b 100644
--- a/activesupport/lib/active_support/json/encoding.rb
+++ b/activesupport/lib/active_support/json/encoding.rb
@@ -57,6 +57,10 @@ def to_json(*)
                 super.gsub ESCAPE_REGEX_WITHOUT_HTML_ENTITIES, ESCAPED_CHARS
               end
             end
+
+            def to_s
+              self
+            end
           end
 
           # Mark these as private so we don't leak encoding-specific constructs
diff --git a/activesupport/test/json/encoding_test.rb b/activesupport/test/json/encoding_test.rb
index 2f269a66f000bd4a878f1b977284e8faed545129..ee47b97a8a26b452147e908e4e24894a1332fc29 100644
--- a/activesupport/test/json/encoding_test.rb
+++ b/activesupport/test/json/encoding_test.rb
@@ -147,6 +147,13 @@ def test_hash_encoding
     assert_equal %({\"a\":\"b\",\"c\":\"d\"}), sorted_json(ActiveSupport::JSON.encode(:a => :b, :c => :d))
   end
 
+  def test_hash_keys_encoding
+    ActiveSupport.escape_html_entities_in_json = true
+    assert_equal "{\"\\u003c\\u003e\":\"\\u003c\\u003e\"}", ActiveSupport::JSON.encode("<>" => "<>")
+  ensure
+    ActiveSupport.escape_html_entities_in_json = false
+  end
+
   def test_utf8_string_encoded_properly
     result = ActiveSupport::JSON.encode('€2.99')
     assert_equal '"€2.99"', result