diff --git a/pandas/io/json/_json.py b/pandas/io/json/_json.py
index 6ce288890b6c7..e71e695e5a5a5 100644
--- a/pandas/io/json/_json.py
+++ b/pandas/io/json/_json.py
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 from collections import OrderedDict
+from errno import ENOENT
 from io import StringIO
 from itertools import islice
 import os
@@ -708,6 +709,14 @@ def _get_data_from_filepath(self, filepath_or_buffer):
             )
             self.should_close = True
             self.open_stream = data
+        else:
+            raise FileNotFoundError(
+                ENOENT,
+                "File {filepath_or_buffer} does not exist".format(
+                    filepath_or_buffer=filepath_or_buffer
+                ),
+                filepath_or_buffer,
+            )
 
         return data
 
diff --git a/pandas/tests/io/test_common.py b/pandas/tests/io/test_common.py
index 655fd9d01c1c0..1938f5f994db5 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/io/test_common.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/io/test_common.py
@@ -141,7 +141,7 @@ def test_iterator(self):
             (pd.read_hdf, "tables", FileNotFoundError, "h5"),
             (pd.read_stata, "os", FileNotFoundError, "dta"),
             (pd.read_sas, "os", FileNotFoundError, "sas7bdat"),
-            (pd.read_json, "os", ValueError, "json"),
+            (pd.read_json, "os", FileNotFoundError, "json"),
             (pd.read_msgpack, "os", FileNotFoundError, "mp"),
             (pd.read_pickle, "os", FileNotFoundError, "pickle"),
         ],
@@ -176,7 +176,7 @@ def test_read_non_existant(self, reader, module, error_class, fn_ext):
             (pd.read_hdf, "tables", FileNotFoundError, "h5"),
             (pd.read_stata, "os", FileNotFoundError, "dta"),
             (pd.read_sas, "os", FileNotFoundError, "sas7bdat"),
-            (pd.read_json, "os", ValueError, "json"),
+            (pd.read_json, "os", FileNotFoundError, "json"),
             (pd.read_msgpack, "os", FileNotFoundError, "mp"),
             (pd.read_pickle, "os", FileNotFoundError, "pickle"),
         ],