diff --git a/src/ebd_toolchain/main.py b/src/ebd_toolchain/main.py
index 18f5e0a..5b713e1 100644
--- a/src/ebd_toolchain/main.py
+++ b/src/ebd_toolchain/main.py
@@ -82,7 +82,6 @@ def _dump_svg(svg_path: Path, ebd_graph: EbdGraph, converter: DotToSvgConverter)
 
 def _dump_json(json_path: Path, ebd_table: EbdTable | EbdTableMetaData) -> None:
     with open(json_path, "w+", encoding="utf-8") as json_file:
-        json.dump(cattrs.unstructure(ebd_table), json_file, ensure_ascii=False, indent=2, sort_keys=True)
         if isinstance(ebd_table, EbdTableMetaData):
             json.dump(
                 cattrs.unstructure(EbdTable(metadata=ebd_table, rows=[])),
diff --git a/unittests/test_main.py b/unittests/test_main.py
index e0d0988..6c02ac2 100644
--- a/unittests/test_main.py
+++ b/unittests/test_main.py
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 tests the main script
 """
 
+import json
 from pathlib import Path
 from typing import Literal
 
@@ -37,3 +38,8 @@ def test_main(
     # in the repo root
     _main(input_path, tmp_path, export_types)
     # we don't assert on the results but instead just check that it doesn't crash
+    json_files = list(tmp_path.glob("*.json"))
+    for json_file in json_files:
+        assert json_file.exists()
+        with open(json_file, "r", encoding="utf-8") as f:
+            _ = json.load(f)  # must be valid json