diff --git a/go/test/endtoend/vreplication/config.go b/go/test/endtoend/vreplication/config.go
index 8bb6150c0c5..6d73e4db255 100644
--- a/go/test/endtoend/vreplication/config.go
+++ b/go/test/endtoend/vreplication/config.go
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ package vreplication
 var (
 	initialProductSchema = `
 create table product(pid int, description varbinary(128), primary key(pid));
-create table customer(cid int, name varbinary(128), typ enum('individual','soho','enterprise'), sport set('football','cricket','baseball'),ts timestamp not null default current_timestamp, primary key(cid));
+create table customer(cid int, name varbinary(128), meta json default null, typ enum('individual','soho','enterprise'), sport set('football','cricket','baseball'),ts timestamp not null default current_timestamp, primary key(cid))  CHARSET=utf8mb4;
 create table customer_seq(id int, next_id bigint, cache bigint, primary key(id)) comment 'vitess_sequence';
 create table merchant(mname varchar(128), category varchar(128), primary key(mname)) DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4 COLLATE=utf8mb4_general_ci;
 create table orders(oid int, cid int, pid int, mname varchar(128), price int, primary key(oid));
diff --git a/go/test/endtoend/vreplication/unsharded_init_data.sql b/go/test/endtoend/vreplication/unsharded_init_data.sql
index f8e0cc5d86f..15e2405eb0a 100644
--- a/go/test/endtoend/vreplication/unsharded_init_data.sql
+++ b/go/test/endtoend/vreplication/unsharded_init_data.sql
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
-insert into customer(cid, name, typ, sport) values(1, 'john',1,'football,baseball');
-insert into customer(cid, name, typ, sport) values(2, 'paul','soho','cricket');
+insert into customer(cid, name, typ, sport, meta) values(1, 'john',1,'football,baseball','{}');
+insert into customer(cid, name, typ, sport, meta) values(2, 'paul','soho','cricket',convert(x'7b7d' using utf8mb4));
 insert into customer(cid, name, typ, sport) values(3, 'ringo','enterprise','');
 insert into merchant(mname, category) values('monoprice', 'electronics');
 insert into merchant(mname, category) values('newegg', 'electronics');
diff --git a/go/test/endtoend/vreplication/vreplication_test.go b/go/test/endtoend/vreplication/vreplication_test.go
index 899273b9192..dfdb39d7af6 100644
--- a/go/test/endtoend/vreplication/vreplication_test.go
+++ b/go/test/endtoend/vreplication/vreplication_test.go
@@ -284,6 +284,8 @@ func shardCustomer(t *testing.T, testReverse bool, cells []*Cell, sourceCellOrAl
 
 		insertQuery2 = "insert into customer(name, cid) values('tempCustomer4', 102)" //ID 102, hence due to reverse_bits in shard -80
 		require.True(t, validateThatQueryExecutesOnTablet(t, vtgateConn, customerTab1, "customer", insertQuery2, matchInsertQuery2))
+
+		execVtgateQuery(t, vtgateConn, "customer", "update customer set meta = convert(x'7b7d' using utf8mb4) where cid = 1")
 		reverseKsWorkflow := "product.p2c_reverse"
 		if testReverse {
 			//Reverse Replicate
diff --git a/go/vt/vttablet/tabletmanager/vreplication/table_plan_builder.go b/go/vt/vttablet/tabletmanager/vreplication/table_plan_builder.go
index d02c372469a..c3325c118d7 100644
--- a/go/vt/vttablet/tabletmanager/vreplication/table_plan_builder.go
+++ b/go/vt/vttablet/tabletmanager/vreplication/table_plan_builder.go
@@ -626,7 +626,11 @@ func (tpb *tablePlanBuilder) generateUpdateStatement() *sqlparser.ParsedQuery {
 		switch cexpr.operation {
 		case opExpr:
 			bvf.mode = bvAfter
-			buf.Myprintf("%v", cexpr.expr)
+			if cexpr.colType == querypb.Type_JSON {
+				buf.Myprintf("convert(%v using utf8mb4)", cexpr.expr)
+			} else {
+				buf.Myprintf("%v", cexpr.expr)
+			}
 		case opCount:
 			buf.Myprintf("%v", cexpr.colName)
 		case opSum:
diff --git a/go/vt/vttablet/tabletmanager/vreplication/vplayer_flaky_test.go b/go/vt/vttablet/tabletmanager/vreplication/vplayer_flaky_test.go
index adf55a3f80f..24e2a1773c9 100644
--- a/go/vt/vttablet/tabletmanager/vreplication/vplayer_flaky_test.go
+++ b/go/vt/vttablet/tabletmanager/vreplication/vplayer_flaky_test.go
@@ -1270,7 +1270,16 @@ func TestPlayerRowMove(t *testing.T) {
 
 func TestPlayerTypes(t *testing.T) {
 	log.Errorf("TestPlayerTypes: flavor is %s", env.Flavor)
-
+	enableJSONColumnTesting := false
+	flavor := strings.ToLower(env.Flavor)
+	// Disable tests on percona (which identifies as mysql56) and mariadb platforms in CI since they
+	// either don't support JSON or JSON support is not enabled by default
+	if strings.Contains(flavor, "mysql57") || strings.Contains(flavor, "mysql80") {
+		log.Infof("Running JSON column type tests on flavor %s", flavor)
+		enableJSONColumnTesting = true
+	} else {
+		log.Warningf("Not running JSON column type tests on flavor %s", flavor)
+	}
 	defer deleteTablet(addTablet(100))
 
 	execStatements(t, []string{
@@ -1303,7 +1312,7 @@ func TestPlayerTypes(t *testing.T) {
 		"drop table binary_pk",
 		fmt.Sprintf("drop table %s.binary_pk", vrepldb),
 	})
-	if strings.Contains(env.Flavor, "mysql57") {
+	if enableJSONColumnTesting {
 		execStatements(t, []string{
 			"create table vitess_json(id int auto_increment, val1 json, val2 json, val3 json, val4 json, val5 json, primary key(id))",
 			fmt.Sprintf("create table %s.vitess_json(id int, val1 json, val2 json, val3 json, val4 json, val5 json, primary key(id))", vrepldb),
@@ -1386,8 +1395,7 @@ func TestPlayerTypes(t *testing.T) {
 			{"a\x00\x00\x00", "bbb"},
 		},
 	}}
-
-	if strings.Contains(env.Flavor, "mysql57") {
+	if enableJSONColumnTesting {
 		testcases = append(testcases, testcase{
 			input: "insert into vitess_json(val1,val2,val3,val4,val5) values (null,'{}','123','{\"a\":[42,100]}', '{\"foo\":\"bar\"}')",
 			output: "insert into vitess_json(id,val1,val2,val3,val4,val5) values (1," +
@@ -1398,6 +1406,14 @@ func TestPlayerTypes(t *testing.T) {
 				{"1", "", "{}", "123", `{"a": [42, 100]}`, `{"foo": "bar"}`},
 			},
 		})
+		testcases = append(testcases, testcase{
+			input:  "update vitess_json set val4 = '{\"a\": [98, 123]}', val5 = convert(x'7b7d' using utf8mb4)",
+			output: "update vitess_json set val1=convert(null using utf8mb4), val2=convert('{}' using utf8mb4), val3=convert('123' using utf8mb4), val4=convert('{\\\"a\\\":[98,123]}' using utf8mb4), val5=convert('{}' using utf8mb4) where id=1",
+			table:  "vitess_json",
+			data: [][]string{
+				{"1", "", "{}", "123", `{"a": [98, 123]}`, `{}`},
+			},
+		})
 	}
 
 	for _, tcases := range testcases {