Does the ES modules implementation support importing JSON files?

Question

I couldn't find any answers on importing JSON files with the new ES modules implementation, all the answers that I've found on StackOverflow are for code that's transpiled using Babel, I want to import my package.json file:

import pkg from '../package.json';

And I'm getting this error:

(node:7863) ExperimentalWarning: The ESM module loader is experimental.
internal/modules/run_main.js:54
    internalBinding('errors').triggerUncaughtException(
                              ^

TypeError [ERR_UNKNOWN_FILE_EXTENSION]: Unknown file extension ".json" for /home/user/files/project/package.json imported from /home/user/files/project/version.js
    at Loader.resolve [as _resolve] (internal/modules/esm/default_resolve.js:126:13)
    at Loader.resolve (internal/modules/esm/loader.js:72:33)
    at Loader.getModuleJob (internal/modules/esm/loader.js:156:40)
    at ModuleWrap.<anonymous> (internal/modules/esm/module_job.js:42:40)
    at link (internal/modules/esm/module_job.js:41:36) {
  code: 'ERR_UNKNOWN_FILE_EXTENSION'
}

I'm using the latest Node.js 13.6.0, am I only left with the option to read the file using the fs module?

Answer 1

I've found in the Node.js ES Modules docs that currently importing JSON is only supported in the CommonJS mode and the flag --experimental-json-modules is required for importing JSON files in ES modules.

Assuming an index.mjs with

import packageConfig from './package.json';

The --experimental-json-modules flag is needed for the module to work.

node index.mjs # fails
node --experimental-json-modules index.mjs # works