diff --git a/tracing-subscriber/src/fmt/format/json.rs b/tracing-subscriber/src/fmt/format/json.rs
index bd47214da3..425634fe80 100644
--- a/tracing-subscriber/src/fmt/format/json.rs
+++ b/tracing-subscriber/src/fmt/format/json.rs
@@ -529,11 +529,15 @@ mod test {
             .join("src")
             .join("fmt")
             .join("format")
-            .join("json.rs");
+            .join("json.rs")
+            .to_str()
+            .expect("path must be valid unicode")
+            // escape windows backslashes
+            .replace('\\', "\\\\");
         let expected =
             &format!("{}{}{}",
                     "{\"timestamp\":\"fake time\",\"level\":\"INFO\",\"span\":{\"answer\":42,\"name\":\"json_span\",\"number\":3},\"spans\":[{\"answer\":42,\"name\":\"json_span\",\"number\":3}],\"target\":\"tracing_subscriber::fmt::format::json::test\",\"filename\":\"",
-                    &current_path.to_str().unwrap(),
+                    current_path,
                     "\",\"fields\":{\"message\":\"some json test\"}}\n");
         let collector = collector()
             .flatten_event(false)
diff --git a/tracing-subscriber/src/fmt/format/mod.rs b/tracing-subscriber/src/fmt/format/mod.rs
index 63d47757c7..204df05fab 100644
--- a/tracing-subscriber/src/fmt/format/mod.rs
+++ b/tracing-subscriber/src/fmt/format/mod.rs
@@ -1856,9 +1856,8 @@ pub(super) mod test {
         assert!(f.contains(FmtSpan::CLOSE));
     }
 
-    /// Returns the test's module path, pre-processed for use in a regular
-    /// expression by escaping `\` characters..
-    fn current_path() -> &str {
+    /// Returns the test's module path.
+    fn current_path() -> String {
         Path::new("tracing-subscriber")
             .join("src")
             .join("fmt")
@@ -1866,5 +1865,6 @@ pub(super) mod test {
             .join("mod.rs")
             .to_str()
             .expect("path must not contain invalid unicode")
+            .to_owned()
     }
 }