diff --git a/docs/sql-migration-guide.md b/docs/sql-migration-guide.md
index a5ef1c2b1d045..0c47370283736 100644
--- a/docs/sql-migration-guide.md
+++ b/docs/sql-migration-guide.md
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ license: |
 
   - Since Spark 3.0, the Dataset and DataFrame API `unionAll` is not deprecated any more. It is an alias for `union`.
 
-  - In Spark version 2.4 and earlier, the parser of JSON data source treats empty strings as null for some data types such as `IntegerType`. For `FloatType` and `DoubleType`, it fails on empty strings and throws exceptions. Since Spark 3.0, we disallow empty strings and will throw exceptions for data types except for `StringType` and `BinaryType`.
+  - In Spark version 2.4 and earlier, the parser of JSON data source treats empty strings as null for some data types such as `IntegerType`. For `FloatType`, `DoubleType`, `DateType` and `TimestampType`, it fails on empty strings and throws exceptions. Since Spark 3.0, we disallow empty strings and will throw exceptions for data types except for `StringType` and `BinaryType`. The previous behaviour of allowing empty string can be restored by setting `spark.sql.legacy.json.allowEmptyString.enabled` to `true`.
 
   - Since Spark 3.0, the `from_json` functions supports two modes - `PERMISSIVE` and `FAILFAST`. The modes can be set via the `mode` option. The default mode became `PERMISSIVE`. In previous versions, behavior of `from_json` did not conform to either `PERMISSIVE` nor `FAILFAST`, especially in processing of malformed JSON records. For example, the JSON string `{"a" 1}` with the schema `a INT` is converted to `null` by previous versions but Spark 3.0 converts it to `Row(null)`.
 
diff --git a/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/json/JacksonParser.scala b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/json/JacksonParser.scala
index c44025ca8bcfd..76efa574a99ff 100644
--- a/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/json/JacksonParser.scala
+++ b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/json/JacksonParser.scala
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ import org.apache.spark.internal.Logging
 import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.InternalRow
 import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.expressions._
 import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.util._
+import org.apache.spark.sql.internal.SQLConf
 import org.apache.spark.sql.types._
 import org.apache.spark.unsafe.types.{CalendarInterval, UTF8String}
 import org.apache.spark.util.Utils
@@ -307,6 +308,8 @@ class JacksonParser(
     }
   }
 
+  private val allowEmptyString = SQLConf.get.getConf(SQLConf.LEGACY_ALLOW_EMPTY_STRING_IN_JSON)
+
   /**
    * This function throws an exception for failed conversion. For empty string on data types
    * except for string and binary types, this also throws an exception.
@@ -315,7 +318,16 @@ class JacksonParser(
       parser: JsonParser,
       dataType: DataType): PartialFunction[JsonToken, R] = {
 
-    // SPARK-25040: Disallow empty strings for data types except for string and binary types.
+    // SPARK-25040: Disallows empty strings for data types except for string and binary types.
+    // But treats empty strings as null for certain types if the legacy config is enabled.
+    case VALUE_STRING if parser.getTextLength < 1 && allowEmptyString =>
+      dataType match {
+        case FloatType | DoubleType | TimestampType | DateType =>
+          throw new RuntimeException(
+            s"Failed to parse an empty string for data type ${dataType.catalogString}")
+        case _ => null
+      }
+
     case VALUE_STRING if parser.getTextLength < 1 =>
       throw new RuntimeException(
         s"Failed to parse an empty string for data type ${dataType.catalogString}")
diff --git a/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/internal/SQLConf.scala b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/internal/SQLConf.scala
index b94ddbdc0fc9a..5ce5692123805 100644
--- a/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/internal/SQLConf.scala
+++ b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/internal/SQLConf.scala
@@ -1989,6 +1989,14 @@ object SQLConf {
       .booleanConf
       .createWithDefault(false)
 
+  val LEGACY_ALLOW_EMPTY_STRING_IN_JSON =
+    buildConf("spark.sql.legacy.json.allowEmptyString.enabled")
+      .internal()
+      .doc("When set to true, the parser of JSON data source treats empty strings as null for " +
+      "some data types such as `IntegerType`.")
+      .booleanConf
+      .createWithDefault(false)
+
   val TRUNCATE_TABLE_IGNORE_PERMISSION_ACL =
     buildConf("spark.sql.truncateTable.ignorePermissionAcl.enabled")
       .internal()
diff --git a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/datasources/json/JsonSuite.scala b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/datasources/json/JsonSuite.scala
index d0e2e001034fb..b20da2266b0f3 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/datasources/json/JsonSuite.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/datasources/json/JsonSuite.scala
@@ -2436,23 +2436,24 @@ abstract class JsonSuite extends QueryTest with SharedSparkSession with TestJson
     }
   }
 
-  test("SPARK-25040: empty strings should be disallowed") {
-    def failedOnEmptyString(dataType: DataType): Unit = {
-       val df = spark.read.schema(s"a ${dataType.catalogString}")
-        .option("mode", "FAILFAST").json(Seq("""{"a":""}""").toDS)
-      val errMessage = intercept[SparkException] {
-        df.collect()
-      }.getMessage
-      assert(errMessage.contains(
-        s"Failed to parse an empty string for data type ${dataType.catalogString}"))
-    }
 
-    def emptyString(dataType: DataType, expected: Any): Unit = {
-      val df = spark.read.schema(s"a ${dataType.catalogString}")
-        .option("mode", "FAILFAST").json(Seq("""{"a":""}""").toDS)
-      checkAnswer(df, Row(expected) :: Nil)
-    }
+  private def failedOnEmptyString(dataType: DataType): Unit = {
+    val df = spark.read.schema(s"a ${dataType.catalogString}")
+      .option("mode", "FAILFAST").json(Seq("""{"a":""}""").toDS)
+    val errMessage = intercept[SparkException] {
+      df.collect()
+    }.getMessage
+    assert(errMessage.contains(
+      s"Failed to parse an empty string for data type ${dataType.catalogString}"))
+  }
 
+  private def emptyString(dataType: DataType, expected: Any): Unit = {
+    val df = spark.read.schema(s"a ${dataType.catalogString}")
+      .option("mode", "FAILFAST").json(Seq("""{"a":""}""").toDS)
+    checkAnswer(df, Row(expected) :: Nil)
+  }
+
+  test("SPARK-25040: empty strings should be disallowed") {
     failedOnEmptyString(BooleanType)
     failedOnEmptyString(ByteType)
     failedOnEmptyString(ShortType)
@@ -2471,6 +2472,36 @@ abstract class JsonSuite extends QueryTest with SharedSparkSession with TestJson
     emptyString(BinaryType, "".getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8))
   }
 
+  test("SPARK-25040: allowing empty strings when legacy config is enabled") {
+    def emptyStringAsNull(dataType: DataType): Unit = {
+      val df = spark.read.schema(s"a ${dataType.catalogString}")
+        .option("mode", "FAILFAST").json(Seq("""{"a":""}""").toDS)
+      checkAnswer(df, Row(null) :: Nil)
+    }
+
+    // Legacy mode prior to Spark 3.0.0
+    withSQLConf(SQLConf.LEGACY_ALLOW_EMPTY_STRING_IN_JSON.key -> "true") {
+      emptyStringAsNull(BooleanType)
+      emptyStringAsNull(ByteType)
+      emptyStringAsNull(ShortType)
+      emptyStringAsNull(IntegerType)
+      emptyStringAsNull(LongType)
+
+      failedOnEmptyString(FloatType)
+      failedOnEmptyString(DoubleType)
+      failedOnEmptyString(TimestampType)
+      failedOnEmptyString(DateType)
+
+      emptyStringAsNull(DecimalType.SYSTEM_DEFAULT)
+      emptyStringAsNull(ArrayType(IntegerType))
+      emptyStringAsNull(MapType(StringType, IntegerType, true))
+      emptyStringAsNull(StructType(StructField("f1", IntegerType, true) :: Nil))
+
+      emptyString(StringType, "")
+      emptyString(BinaryType, "".getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8))
+    }
+  }
+
   test("return partial result for bad records") {
     val schema = "a double, b array<int>, c string, _corrupt_record string"
     val badRecords = Seq(