diff --git a/lang/java/avro/src/main/java/org/apache/avro/SchemaBuilder.java b/lang/java/avro/src/main/java/org/apache/avro/SchemaBuilder.java
index 818f89aeb95..0fae1dbb78d 100644
--- a/lang/java/avro/src/main/java/org/apache/avro/SchemaBuilder.java
+++ b/lang/java/avro/src/main/java/org/apache/avro/SchemaBuilder.java
@@ -18,7 +18,6 @@
 package org.apache.avro;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
-import java.nio.Buffer;
 import java.nio.ByteBuffer;
 import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
@@ -31,7 +30,6 @@
 import java.util.Objects;
 import java.util.Set;
 
-import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.io.JsonStringEncoder;
 import org.apache.avro.Schema.Field;
 import org.apache.avro.generic.GenericData;
 import org.apache.avro.generic.GenericRecord;
@@ -2414,11 +2412,12 @@ public final FieldAssembler<R> bytesDefault(ByteBuffer defaultVal) {
 
     /**
      * Completes this field with the default value provided, cannot be null. The
-     * string is interpreted as a byte[], with each character code point value
-     * equalling the byte value, as in the Avro spec JSON default.
+     * string is interpreted as a byte[] (in ISO_8859_1 encoding), with each
+     * character code point value equalling the byte value, as in the Avro spec JSON
+     * default.
      **/
     public final FieldAssembler<R> bytesDefault(String defaultVal) {
-      return super.usingDefault(defaultVal);
+      return super.usingDefault(defaultVal.getBytes(StandardCharsets.ISO_8859_1));
     }
 
     @Override
@@ -2496,11 +2495,12 @@ public final FieldAssembler<R> fixedDefault(ByteBuffer defaultVal) {
 
     /**
      * Completes this field with the default value provided, cannot be null. The
-     * string is interpreted as a byte[], with each character code point value
-     * equalling the byte value, as in the Avro spec JSON default.
+     * string is interpreted as a byte[] (in ISO_8859_1 encoding), with each
+     * character code point value equalling the byte value, as in the Avro spec JSON
+     * default.
      **/
     public final FieldAssembler<R> fixedDefault(String defaultVal) {
-      return super.usingDefault(defaultVal);
+      return this.fixedDefault(defaultVal.getBytes(StandardCharsets.ISO_8859_1));
     }
 
     @Override
@@ -2715,26 +2715,11 @@ public R endUnion() {
   // create default value JsonNodes from objects
   private static JsonNode toJsonNode(Object o) {
     try {
-      String s;
-      if (o instanceof ByteBuffer) {
-        // special case since GenericData.toString() is incorrect for bytes
-        // note that this does not handle the case of a default value with nested bytes
-        ByteBuffer bytes = ((ByteBuffer) o);
-        ((Buffer) bytes).mark();
-        byte[] data = new byte[bytes.remaining()];
-        bytes.get(data);
-        ((Buffer) bytes).reset(); // put the buffer back the way we got it
-        s = new String(data, StandardCharsets.ISO_8859_1);
-        char[] quoted = JsonStringEncoder.getInstance().quoteAsString(s);
-        s = "\"" + new String(quoted) + "\"";
-      } else if (o instanceof byte[]) {
-        s = new String((byte[]) o, StandardCharsets.ISO_8859_1);
-        char[] quoted = JsonStringEncoder.getInstance().quoteAsString(s);
-        s = '\"' + new String(quoted) + '\"';
-      } else {
-        s = GenericData.get().toString(o);
+      if (o instanceof byte[]) {
+        o = ByteBuffer.wrap((byte[]) o);
       }
-      return new ObjectMapper().readTree(s);
+
+      return new ObjectMapper().readTree(GenericData.get().toString(o));
     } catch (IOException e) {
       throw new SchemaBuilderException(e);
     }
diff --git a/lang/java/avro/src/main/java/org/apache/avro/generic/GenericData.java b/lang/java/avro/src/main/java/org/apache/avro/generic/GenericData.java
index 6db0a40eee6..643a7a69b73 100644
--- a/lang/java/avro/src/main/java/org/apache/avro/generic/GenericData.java
+++ b/lang/java/avro/src/main/java/org/apache/avro/generic/GenericData.java
@@ -21,7 +21,6 @@
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.nio.Buffer;
 import java.nio.ByteBuffer;
-import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import java.time.temporal.Temporal;
 import java.util.AbstractList;
 import java.util.Arrays;
@@ -744,7 +743,7 @@ protected void toString(Object datum, StringBuilder buffer, IdentityHashMap<Obje
     } else if (isBytes(datum)) {
       buffer.append("\"");
       ByteBuffer bytes = ((ByteBuffer) datum).duplicate();
-      writeEscapedString(StandardCharsets.ISO_8859_1.decode(bytes), buffer);
+      writeBytesAsJsonString(bytes, buffer);
       buffer.append("\"");
     } else if (isNanOrInfinity(datum) || isTemporal(datum) || datum instanceof UUID) {
       buffer.append("\"");
@@ -772,6 +771,20 @@ private boolean isNanOrInfinity(Object datum) {
         || ((datum instanceof Double) && (((Double) datum).isInfinite() || ((Double) datum).isNaN()));
   }
 
+  private static void writeBytesAsJsonString(ByteBuffer buffer, StringBuilder builder) {
+    byte[] bytes = new byte[buffer.remaining()];
+    buffer.get(bytes);
+
+    for (byte b : bytes) {
+      String hex = Integer.toHexString(b);
+
+      builder.append("\\u");
+      for (int j = 0; j < 4 - hex.length(); j++)
+        builder.append('0');
+      builder.append(hex.toUpperCase());
+    }
+  }
+
   /* Adapted from https://code.google.com/p/json-simple */
   private static void writeEscapedString(CharSequence string, StringBuilder builder) {
     for (int i = 0; i < string.length(); i++) {
diff --git a/lang/java/avro/src/test/java/org/apache/avro/generic/TestGenericData.java b/lang/java/avro/src/test/java/org/apache/avro/generic/TestGenericData.java
index 20c82179561..bf89f4c4049 100644
--- a/lang/java/avro/src/test/java/org/apache/avro/generic/TestGenericData.java
+++ b/lang/java/avro/src/test/java/org/apache/avro/generic/TestGenericData.java
@@ -550,11 +550,10 @@ void mapWithNonStringKeyToStringIsJson() throws Exception {
   }
 
   @Test
-  void toStringEscapesControlCharsInBytes() throws Exception {
+  void toStringWritesBytesAsUEscapedSequence() throws Exception {
     GenericData data = GenericData.get();
     ByteBuffer bytes = ByteBuffer.wrap(new byte[] { 'a', '\n', 'b' });
-    assertEquals("\"a\\nb\"", data.toString(bytes));
-    assertEquals("\"a\\nb\"", data.toString(bytes));
+    assertEquals("\"\\u0061\\u000A\\u0062\"", data.toString(bytes));
   }
 
   @Test