diff --git a/lib/ansible/modules/cloud/amazon/iam_policy.py b/lib/ansible/modules/cloud/amazon/iam_policy.py
index 37b413dd05..7bb80bd31e 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/modules/cloud/amazon/iam_policy.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/modules/cloud/amazon/iam_policy.py
@@ -280,7 +280,7 @@ def main():
       iam_name=dict(default=None, required=False),
       policy_name=dict(default=None, required=True),
       policy_document=dict(default=None, required=False),
-      policy_json=dict(default=None, required=False),
+      policy_json=dict(type='json', default=None, required=False),
       skip_duplicates=dict(type='bool', default=True, required=False)
   ))