diff --git a/JSON.sh b/JSON.sh
index 0778633..19cdc6b 100755
--- a/JSON.sh
+++ b/JSON.sh
@@ -83,11 +83,11 @@ tokenize () {
   if echo "test string" | egrep -o "test" >/dev/null 2>&1
   then
     ESCAPE='(\\[^u[:cntrl:]]|\\u[0-9a-fA-F]{4})'
-    CHAR='[^[:cntrl:]"\\]'
+    CHAR='([^[:cntrl:]"\\]|)'
   else
     GREP=awk_egrep
     ESCAPE='(\\\\[^u[:cntrl:]]|\\u[0-9a-fA-F]{4})'
-    CHAR='[^[:cntrl:]"\\\\]'
+    CHAR='([^[:cntrl:]"\\\\]|\x7F)'
   fi
 
   local STRING="\"$CHAR*($ESCAPE$CHAR*)*\""
diff --git a/test/valid/string_with_unescaped_chars.json b/test/valid/string_with_unescaped_chars.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..37c30dd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/valid/string_with_unescaped_chars.json
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+"₀򂂀𝌆"
diff --git a/test/valid/string_with_unescaped_chars.parsed b/test/valid/string_with_unescaped_chars.parsed
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..422bae5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/valid/string_with_unescaped_chars.parsed
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+[]	"₀򂂀𝌆"