diff --git a/Changes b/Changes
index 73c3038..fa7304b 100644
--- a/Changes
+++ b/Changes
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ Revision history for OpenTelemetry-Exporter-OTLP
 {{$NEXT}}
 
     * Bump OTLP Protobuf files to v1.2.0
+    * Ensure JSON encoder encodes status messages as strings.
 
 0.015     2023-11-26 16:19:58+00:00 Europe/London
 
diff --git a/lib/OpenTelemetry/Exporter/OTLP/Encoder/JSON.pm b/lib/OpenTelemetry/Exporter/OTLP/Encoder/JSON.pm
index 4aebb8d..8f3005a 100644
--- a/lib/OpenTelemetry/Exporter/OTLP/Encoder/JSON.pm
+++ b/lib/OpenTelemetry/Exporter/OTLP/Encoder/JSON.pm
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ class OpenTelemetry::Exporter::OTLP::Encoder::JSON {
     method encode_status ( $status ) {
         {
             code    => $status->code,
-            message => $status->description,
+            message => '' . $status->description,
         };
     }
 
diff --git a/t/OpenTelemetry/Exporter/OTLP/Encoder/JSON.t b/t/OpenTelemetry/Exporter/OTLP/Encoder/JSON.t
index 1c2bc5e..da764fc 100644
--- a/t/OpenTelemetry/Exporter/OTLP/Encoder/JSON.t
+++ b/t/OpenTelemetry/Exporter/OTLP/Encoder/JSON.t
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ my $span_mock = mock 'Local::Span' => add => [
     trace_state           => sub { shift->{context}->trace_state },
 ];
 
-is decode_json(CLASS->new->encode([
+my $encoded = CLASS->new->encode([
     Local::Span->new(
         scope    => $a_scope,
         name     => 'A-A',
@@ -80,7 +80,11 @@ is decode_json(CLASS->new->encode([
         name     => 'B-B',
         resource => $b_resource,
     ),
-])), {
+]);
+
+like $encoded, qr/"message":"[^"]*?"/, "Status description is a string";
+
+is decode_json($encoded), {
     resourceSpans => array {
         prop size => 2;
         all_items {