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You shouldn't call you're variable as json. This caused the mistake.

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Do something like:

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import json

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not_json = open('file.json')

data = json.load(not_json)

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Or even better:

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with open('file.json') as input_file:

    data = json.load(input_file)

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[edit]

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To address to what commented below, when you declare something like:

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import json

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json = 2

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the word json now points to a number , and you lose the name of the imported package. This is true unless you declare it in a different scope (inside a function for example).

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Best practice: Try to avoid naming vars / function / classes etc in names which are built-ins, known packages etc (like: list = 2; list([1,2,3]))

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