diff --git a/dlib/java/CMakeLists.txt b/dlib/java/CMakeLists.txt
index f099b19d6..4d66a513c 100644
--- a/dlib/java/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/dlib/java/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -5,7 +5,6 @@ set(java_package_name net.dlib)
 set(source_files
    )
 
-include(../cmake_utils/use_cpp_11.cmake)
 include(../cmake_utils/release_build_by_default)
 
 include_directories(
@@ -13,7 +12,7 @@ include_directories(
    )
 
 # Additional dependencies
-#include(../../dlib/cmake)
+#add_subdirectory(../../dlib dlib_build)
 #set(additional_link_libraries dlib::dlib)
 
 # Tell swig to put the output files (the shared library and .jar) into the local folder.
diff --git a/dlib/java/cmake_swig_jni b/dlib/java/cmake_swig_jni
index 0a572e60a..3a220b04a 100644
--- a/dlib/java/cmake_swig_jni
+++ b/dlib/java/cmake_swig_jni
@@ -42,6 +42,8 @@
 
 cmake_minimum_required (VERSION 2.8.12)
 
+include(../cmake_utils/use_cpp_11.cmake)
+
 # This block of code tries to figure out what the JAVA_HOME environment
 # variable should be by looking at the folder that contains the java
 # executable.
@@ -178,6 +180,7 @@ FILE(MAKE_DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/${binary_dir_name}")
 
 set_source_files_properties(${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/swig.i PROPERTIES CPLUSPLUS ON)
 swig_add_module(${output_library_name} java ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/swig.i ${source_files})
+enable_cpp11_for_target(${output_library_name})
 
 include_directories(${JNI_INCLUDE_DIRS})
 swig_link_libraries(${output_library_name}  ${additional_link_libraries})