diff --git a/merge_sort_java/pom.xml b/merge_sort_java/pom.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..edb39b4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/merge_sort_java/pom.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
+         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
+    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
+
+    <groupId>com.mergesort</groupId>
+    <artifactId>merge-sort-example</artifactId>
+    <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <packaging>jar</packaging>
+
+    <name>Merge Sort Example</name>
+    <description>Java rebuild of COBOL merge_sort_test.cbl - Testing sort and merge on customer test data</description>
+
+    <properties>
+        <maven.compiler.source>17</maven.compiler.source>
+        <maven.compiler.target>17</maven.compiler.target>
+        <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
+    </properties>
+
+    <dependencies>
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>junit</groupId>
+            <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
+            <version>4.13.2</version>
+            <scope>test</scope>
+        </dependency>
+    </dependencies>
+
+    <build>
+        <plugins>
+            <plugin>
+                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
+                <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
+                <version>3.3.0</version>
+                <configuration>
+                    <archive>
+                        <manifest>
+                            <mainClass>com.mergesort.MergeSortExample</mainClass>
+                        </manifest>
+                    </archive>
+                </configuration>
+            </plugin>
+        </plugins>
+    </build>
+</project>
diff --git a/merge_sort_java/src/main/java/com/mergesort/CustomerRecord.java b/merge_sort_java/src/main/java/com/mergesort/CustomerRecord.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..76fecf6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/merge_sort_java/src/main/java/com/mergesort/CustomerRecord.java
@@ -0,0 +1,91 @@
+package com.mergesort;
+
+import java.util.Comparator;
+
+public class CustomerRecord {
+
+    public static final Comparator<CustomerRecord> BY_CUSTOMER_ID_ASC =
+            Comparator.comparingInt(CustomerRecord::getCustomerId);
+
+    public static final Comparator<CustomerRecord> BY_CONTRACT_ID_DESC =
+            Comparator.comparingInt(CustomerRecord::getContractId).reversed();
+
+    private int customerId;
+    private String lastName;
+    private String firstName;
+    private int contractId;
+    private String comment;
+
+    public CustomerRecord(int customerId, String lastName, String firstName,
+                          int contractId, String comment) {
+        this.customerId = customerId;
+        this.lastName = lastName;
+        this.firstName = firstName;
+        this.contractId = contractId;
+        this.comment = comment;
+    }
+
+    public int getCustomerId() {
+        return customerId;
+    }
+
+    public String getLastName() {
+        return lastName;
+    }
+
+    public String getFirstName() {
+        return firstName;
+    }
+
+    public int getContractId() {
+        return contractId;
+    }
+
+    public String getComment() {
+        return comment;
+    }
+
+    public String toFileString() {
+        return String.format("%05d%-50s%-50s%05d%-25s",
+                customerId, lastName, firstName, contractId, comment);
+    }
+
+    public static CustomerRecord fromFileString(String line) {
+        if (line.length() < 135) {
+            line = String.format("%-135s", line);
+        }
+        int id = Integer.parseInt(line.substring(0, 5).trim());
+        String last = line.substring(5, 55).trim();
+        String first = line.substring(55, 105).trim();
+        int contract = Integer.parseInt(line.substring(105, 110).trim());
+        String cmt = line.substring(110, 135).trim();
+        return new CustomerRecord(id, last, first, contract, cmt);
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public String toString() {
+        return toFileString();
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public boolean equals(Object o) {
+        if (this == o) return true;
+        if (o == null || getClass() != o.getClass()) return false;
+        CustomerRecord that = (CustomerRecord) o;
+        return customerId == that.customerId
+                && contractId == that.contractId
+                && lastName.equals(that.lastName)
+                && firstName.equals(that.firstName)
+                && comment.equals(that.comment);
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public int hashCode() {
+        int result = customerId;
+        result = 31 * result + lastName.hashCode();
+        result = 31 * result + firstName.hashCode();
+        result = 31 * result + contractId;
+        result = 31 * result + comment.hashCode();
+        return result;
+    }
+}
diff --git a/merge_sort_java/src/main/java/com/mergesort/MergeSortExample.java b/merge_sort_java/src/main/java/com/mergesort/MergeSortExample.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6933794
--- /dev/null
+++ b/merge_sort_java/src/main/java/com/mergesort/MergeSortExample.java
@@ -0,0 +1,107 @@
+package com.mergesort;
+
+import java.io.BufferedReader;
+import java.io.BufferedWriter;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.nio.file.Files;
+import java.nio.file.Path;
+import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.List;
+
+public class MergeSortExample {
+
+    private final Path workDir;
+
+    public MergeSortExample(Path workDir) {
+        this.workDir = workDir;
+    }
+
+    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
+        Path dir = Path.of(System.getProperty("user.dir"));
+        MergeSortExample app = new MergeSortExample(dir);
+        app.run();
+    }
+
+    public void run() throws IOException {
+        createTestData();
+        mergeAndDisplayFiles();
+        sortAndDisplayFile();
+        System.out.println("Done.");
+    }
+
+    void createTestData() throws IOException {
+        System.out.println("Creating test data files...");
+
+        List<CustomerRecord> eastRecords = List.of(
+                new CustomerRecord(1, "last-1", "first-1", 5423, "comment-1"),
+                new CustomerRecord(5, "last-5", "first-5", 12323, "comment-5"),
+                new CustomerRecord(10, "last-10", "first-10", 653, "comment-10"),
+                new CustomerRecord(50, "last-50", "first-50", 5050, "comment-50"),
+                new CustomerRecord(25, "last-25", "first-25", 7725, "comment-25"),
+                new CustomerRecord(75, "last-75", "first-75", 1175, "comment-75")
+        );
+        writeRecords(workDir.resolve("test-file-1.txt"), eastRecords);
+
+        List<CustomerRecord> westRecords = List.of(
+                new CustomerRecord(999, "last-999", "first-999", 1610, "comment-99"),
+                new CustomerRecord(3, "last-03", "first-03", 3331, "comment-03"),
+                new CustomerRecord(30, "last-30", "first-30", 8765, "comment-30"),
+                new CustomerRecord(85, "last-85", "first-85", 4567, "comment-85"),
+                new CustomerRecord(24, "last-24", "first-24", 247, "comment-24")
+        );
+        writeRecords(workDir.resolve("test-file-2.txt"), westRecords);
+    }
+
+    void mergeAndDisplayFiles() throws IOException {
+        System.out.println("Merging and sorting files...");
+
+        List<CustomerRecord> file1Records = readRecords(workDir.resolve("test-file-1.txt"));
+        List<CustomerRecord> file2Records = readRecords(workDir.resolve("test-file-2.txt"));
+
+        List<CustomerRecord> merged = new ArrayList<>();
+        merged.addAll(file1Records);
+        merged.addAll(file2Records);
+        merged.sort(CustomerRecord.BY_CUSTOMER_ID_ASC);
+
+        writeRecords(workDir.resolve("merge-output.txt"), merged);
+
+        for (CustomerRecord record : merged) {
+            System.out.println(record);
+        }
+    }
+
+    void sortAndDisplayFile() throws IOException {
+        System.out.println("Sorting merged file on descending contract id....");
+
+        List<CustomerRecord> mergedRecords = readRecords(workDir.resolve("merge-output.txt"));
+        mergedRecords.sort(CustomerRecord.BY_CONTRACT_ID_DESC);
+
+        writeRecords(workDir.resolve("sorted-contract-id.txt"), mergedRecords);
+
+        for (CustomerRecord record : mergedRecords) {
+            System.out.println(record);
+        }
+    }
+
+    List<CustomerRecord> readRecords(Path file) throws IOException {
+        List<CustomerRecord> records = new ArrayList<>();
+        try (BufferedReader reader = Files.newBufferedReader(file)) {
+            String line;
+            while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
+                if (!line.isBlank()) {
+                    records.add(CustomerRecord.fromFileString(line));
+                }
+            }
+        }
+        return records;
+    }
+
+    void writeRecords(Path file, List<CustomerRecord> records) throws IOException {
+        try (BufferedWriter writer = Files.newBufferedWriter(file)) {
+            for (CustomerRecord record : records) {
+                writer.write(record.toFileString());
+                writer.newLine();
+            }
+        }
+    }
+}
diff --git a/merge_sort_java/src/test/java/com/mergesort/MergeSortExampleTest.java b/merge_sort_java/src/test/java/com/mergesort/MergeSortExampleTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d740fe1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/merge_sort_java/src/test/java/com/mergesort/MergeSortExampleTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,116 @@
+package com.mergesort;
+
+import org.junit.After;
+import org.junit.Before;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.nio.file.Files;
+import java.nio.file.Path;
+import java.util.List;
+
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;
+
+public class MergeSortExampleTest {
+
+    private Path tempDir;
+    private MergeSortExample app;
+
+    @Before
+    public void setUp() throws IOException {
+        tempDir = Files.createTempDirectory("merge-sort-test");
+        app = new MergeSortExample(tempDir);
+    }
+
+    @After
+    public void tearDown() throws IOException {
+        Files.walk(tempDir)
+                .sorted(java.util.Comparator.reverseOrder())
+                .forEach(p -> {
+                    try { Files.deleteIfExists(p); } catch (IOException ignored) {}
+                });
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testCreateTestData() throws IOException {
+        app.createTestData();
+
+        Path file1 = tempDir.resolve("test-file-1.txt");
+        Path file2 = tempDir.resolve("test-file-2.txt");
+        assertTrue("test-file-1.txt should exist", Files.exists(file1));
+        assertTrue("test-file-2.txt should exist", Files.exists(file2));
+
+        List<String> lines1 = Files.readAllLines(file1);
+        assertEquals("East file should have 6 records", 6, lines1.size());
+
+        List<String> lines2 = Files.readAllLines(file2);
+        assertEquals("West file should have 5 records", 5, lines2.size());
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testMergeAndDisplayFiles() throws IOException {
+        app.createTestData();
+        app.mergeAndDisplayFiles();
+
+        Path mergedFile = tempDir.resolve("merge-output.txt");
+        assertTrue("merge-output.txt should exist", Files.exists(mergedFile));
+
+        List<CustomerRecord> records = app.readRecords(mergedFile);
+        assertEquals("Merged file should have 11 records", 11, records.size());
+
+        for (int i = 1; i < records.size(); i++) {
+            assertTrue("Records should be sorted by customer ID ascending",
+                    records.get(i).getCustomerId() >= records.get(i - 1).getCustomerId());
+        }
+
+        assertEquals(1, records.get(0).getCustomerId());
+        assertEquals(3, records.get(1).getCustomerId());
+        assertEquals(5, records.get(2).getCustomerId());
+        assertEquals(999, records.get(10).getCustomerId());
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testSortAndDisplayFile() throws IOException {
+        app.createTestData();
+        app.mergeAndDisplayFiles();
+        app.sortAndDisplayFile();
+
+        Path sortedFile = tempDir.resolve("sorted-contract-id.txt");
+        assertTrue("sorted-contract-id.txt should exist", Files.exists(sortedFile));
+
+        List<CustomerRecord> records = app.readRecords(sortedFile);
+        assertEquals("Sorted file should have 11 records", 11, records.size());
+
+        for (int i = 1; i < records.size(); i++) {
+            assertTrue("Records should be sorted by contract ID descending",
+                    records.get(i).getContractId() <= records.get(i - 1).getContractId());
+        }
+
+        assertEquals(12323, records.get(0).getContractId());
+        assertEquals(247, records.get(10).getContractId());
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testCustomerRecordRoundTrip() {
+        CustomerRecord original = new CustomerRecord(42, "Smith", "John", 12345, "test-comment");
+        String fileString = original.toFileString();
+        CustomerRecord parsed = CustomerRecord.fromFileString(fileString);
+
+        assertEquals(original.getCustomerId(), parsed.getCustomerId());
+        assertEquals(original.getLastName(), parsed.getLastName());
+        assertEquals(original.getFirstName(), parsed.getFirstName());
+        assertEquals(original.getContractId(), parsed.getContractId());
+        assertEquals(original.getComment(), parsed.getComment());
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testFullRun() throws IOException {
+        app.run();
+
+        assertTrue(Files.exists(tempDir.resolve("test-file-1.txt")));
+        assertTrue(Files.exists(tempDir.resolve("test-file-2.txt")));
+        assertTrue(Files.exists(tempDir.resolve("merge-output.txt")));
+        assertTrue(Files.exists(tempDir.resolve("sorted-contract-id.txt")));
+    }
+}