JSON string to Map package com.mkyong; import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper; import java.io.IOException; import java.util.Map; public class JacksonMapExample1 { public static void main(String[] args) { ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper(); String json = "{\"name\":\"mkyong\", \"age\":\"37\"}"; try { // convert JSON string to Map Map<String, String> map = mapper.readValue(json, Map.class); // it works //Map<String, String> map = mapper.readValue(json, new TypeReference<Map<String, String>>() {}); System.out.println(map); } catch (IOException e) { e.printStackTrace(); } } }