diff --git a/dev-java/tapestry-json/tapestry-json-5.8.7-r1.ebuild b/dev-java/tapestry-json/tapestry-json-5.8.7-r1.ebuild
index 86a92de6444b..d225a77afdb4 100644
--- a/dev-java/tapestry-json/tapestry-json-5.8.7-r1.ebuild
+++ b/dev-java/tapestry-json/tapestry-json-5.8.7-r1.ebuild
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ JAVA_SRC_DIR="tapestry-json/src/main/java"
 
 src_compile() {
 	# build classes needed for compilation
+	mkdir -p target/deps || die "mkdir" # openjdk:8 doesn't do it.
 	ejavac -d target/deps \
 		-cp "$(java-pkg_getjars --build-only slf4j-api)" \
 		$(find \