diff --git a/Lib/java/director.swg b/Lib/java/director.swg
index 819ad903d..7f0fd3933 100644
--- a/Lib/java/director.swg
+++ b/Lib/java/director.swg
@@ -380,5 +380,12 @@ namespace Swig {
     return matches;
   }
 
+  class LocalRefGuard {
+      JNIEnv* jenv_;
+      jobject jobj_;
+    public:
+      LocalRefGuard(JNIEnv* jenv, jobject jobj): jenv_(jenv), jobj_(jobj) {}
+      ~LocalRefGuard() { if (jobj_) jenv_->DeleteLocalRef(jobj_); }
+  };
 }
 
diff --git a/Lib/java/java.swg b/Lib/java/java.swg
index 3d4d83730..3ad0e7aba 100644
--- a/Lib/java/java.swg
+++ b/Lib/java/java.swg
@@ -405,6 +405,7 @@ SWIGINTERN const char * SWIG_UnpackData(const char *c, void *ptr, size_t sz) {
     $input = JCALL1(NewStringUTF, jenv, (const char *)$1);
     if (!$input) return $null;
   }
+  Swig::LocalRefGuard refGuard_$input(jenv, $input);
 }
 
 %typemap(freearg, noblock=1) char * { if ($1) JCALL2(ReleaseStringUTFChars, jenv, $input, (const char *)$1); }
@@ -731,6 +732,7 @@ SWIGINTERN const char * SWIG_UnpackData(const char *c, void *ptr, size_t sz) {
     $input = JCALL1(NewStringUTF, jenv, (const char *)$1);
     if (!$input) return $null;
   }
+  Swig::LocalRefGuard refGuard_$input(jenv, $input);
 }
 
 %typemap(argout) char[ANY], char[] ""