diff --git a/scripts/vmstate-static-checker.py b/scripts/vmstate-static-checker.py
index 2335e25f94..89b100e6cc 100755
--- a/scripts/vmstate-static-checker.py
+++ b/scripts/vmstate-static-checker.py
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@
 
 import argparse
 import json
+import pathlib
 import sys
 
 # Count the number of errors found
@@ -382,10 +383,10 @@ def main():
     help_text = "Parse JSON-formatted vmstate dumps from QEMU in files SRC and DEST.  Checks whether migration from SRC to DEST QEMU versions would break based on the VMSTATE information contained within the JSON outputs.  The JSON output is created from a QEMU invocation with the -dump-vmstate parameter and a filename argument to it.  Other parameters to QEMU do not matter, except the -M (machine type) parameter."
 
     parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description=help_text)
-    parser.add_argument('-s', '--src', type=argparse.FileType('r'),
+    parser.add_argument('-s', '--src', type=pathlib.Path,
                         required=True,
                         help='json dump from src qemu')
-    parser.add_argument('-d', '--dest', type=argparse.FileType('r'),
+    parser.add_argument('-d', '--dest', type=pathlib.Path,
                         required=True,
                         help='json dump from dest qemu')
     parser.add_argument('--reverse', required=False, default=False,
@@ -393,10 +394,10 @@ def main():
                         help='reverse the direction')
     args = parser.parse_args()
 
-    src_data = json.load(args.src)
-    dest_data = json.load(args.dest)
-    args.src.close()
-    args.dest.close()
+    with open(args.src, 'r', encoding='utf-8') as src_fh:
+        src_data = json.load(src_fh)
+    with open(args.dest, 'r', encoding='utf-8') as dst_fh:
+        dest_data = json.load(dst_fh)
 
     if args.reverse:
         temp = src_data