diff --git a/pandas/io/json/json.py b/pandas/io/json/json.py
index 1627b2f4d3ec3..17492f5d5cac9 100644
--- a/pandas/io/json/json.py
+++ b/pandas/io/json/json.py
@@ -19,7 +19,18 @@
 from .table_schema import build_table_schema, parse_table_schema
 from pandas.core.dtypes.common import is_period_dtype
 
-loads = json.loads
+
+def loads(*args, **kwargs):
+    try:
+        return json.loads(*args, **kwargs)
+    except ValueError as err:
+        # if ValueError is from too large aa value return []
+        if err.args[0] == 'Value is too big':
+            return []
+        else:
+            # in case of something like '{"key":b:a:d}' re raise
+            raise
+
 dumps = json.dumps
 
 TABLE_SCHEMA_VERSION = '0.20.0'
diff --git a/pandas/tests/io/json/test_pandas.py b/pandas/tests/io/json/test_pandas.py
index 7e497c395266f..0e72e5d3abd84 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/io/json/test_pandas.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/io/json/test_pandas.py
@@ -1222,3 +1222,10 @@ def test_index_false_error_to_json(self, orient):
                                                 "valid when 'orient' is "
                                                 "'split' or 'table'"):
             df.to_json(orient=orient, index=False)
+
+    @pytest.mark.parametrize('orient', [
+        'records', 'index', 'columns', 'values'
+    ])
+    def test_int_overflow(self, orient):
+        bar = json.dumps({'foo': 2**100000})
+        read_json(bar, orient=orient)