diff --git a/man/hostnamectl.xml b/man/hostnamectl.xml
index 3239049095..0f50bf9e44 100644
--- a/man/hostnamectl.xml
+++ b/man/hostnamectl.xml
@@ -201,6 +201,7 @@
       <xi:include href="standard-options.xml" xpointer="help" />
       <xi:include href="standard-options.xml" xpointer="version" />
       <xi:include href="standard-options.xml" xpointer="json" />
+      <xi:include href="standard-options.xml" xpointer="j" />
     </variablelist>
   </refsect1>
 
diff --git a/shell-completion/bash/hostnamectl b/shell-completion/bash/hostnamectl
index 63edc084ae..27a2fe63d2 100644
--- a/shell-completion/bash/hostnamectl
+++ b/shell-completion/bash/hostnamectl
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ _hostnamectl() {
     local i verb comps
     local cur=${COMP_WORDS[COMP_CWORD]} prev=${COMP_WORDS[COMP_CWORD-1]}
     local -A OPTS=(
-        [STANDALONE]='-h --help --version --transient --static --pretty --no-ask-password'
+        [STANDALONE]='-h --help --version --transient --static --pretty --no-ask-password -j'
         [ARG]='-H --host -M --machine --json'
     )
 
diff --git a/src/hostname/hostnamectl.c b/src/hostname/hostnamectl.c
index 4b92ac2b23..4abcf40c26 100644
--- a/src/hostname/hostnamectl.c
+++ b/src/hostname/hostnamectl.c
@@ -616,6 +616,7 @@ static int help(void) {
                "     --pretty            Only set pretty hostname\n"
                "     --json=pretty|short|off\n"
                "                         Generate JSON output\n"
+               "  -j                     Same as --json=pretty on tty, --json=short otherwise\n"
                "\nSee the %s for details.\n",
                program_invocation_short_name,
                ansi_highlight(),
@@ -658,7 +659,7 @@ static int parse_argv(int argc, char *argv[]) {
         assert(argc >= 0);
         assert(argv);
 
-        while ((c = getopt_long(argc, argv, "hH:M:", options, NULL)) >= 0)
+        while ((c = getopt_long(argc, argv, "hH:M:j", options, NULL)) >= 0)
 
                 switch (c) {
 
@@ -701,6 +702,10 @@ static int parse_argv(int argc, char *argv[]) {
 
                         break;
 
+                case 'j':
+                        arg_json_format_flags = JSON_FORMAT_PRETTY_AUTO|JSON_FORMAT_COLOR_AUTO;
+                        break;
+
                 case '?':
                         return -EINVAL;