diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/rules/java/JavaImport.java b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/rules/java/JavaImport.java
index bfcc7b186fa6b1..9c4e92fd2d769c 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/rules/java/JavaImport.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/rules/java/JavaImport.java
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.collect.nestedset.NestedSetBuilder;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.collect.nestedset.Order;
 import com.google.devtools.build.lib.rules.java.JavaRuleOutputJarsProvider.JavaOutput;
+import com.google.devtools.build.lib.packages.Type;
 import java.util.LinkedHashSet;
 import java.util.Set;
 
@@ -202,7 +203,8 @@ private ImmutableList<Artifact> processWithIjarIfNeeded(
       RuleContext ruleContext,
       ImmutableMap.Builder<Artifact, Artifact> compilationToRuntimeJarMap) {
     ImmutableList.Builder<Artifact> interfaceJarsBuilder = ImmutableList.builder();
-    boolean useIjar = ruleContext.getFragment(JavaConfiguration.class).getUseIjars();
+    boolean useIjar = ruleContext.getFragment(JavaConfiguration.class).getUseIjars()
+        && ruleContext.attributes().get("use_ijar", Type.BOOLEAN);
     for (Artifact jar : jars) {
       Artifact interfaceJar =
           useIjar
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/rules/java/JavaImportBaseRule.java b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/rules/java/JavaImportBaseRule.java
index 3193cbda6de6fd..e0d3cfd704ff4b 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/rules/java/JavaImportBaseRule.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/rules/java/JavaImportBaseRule.java
@@ -54,6 +54,13 @@ public RuleClass build(RuleClass.Builder builder, RuleDefinitionEnvironment envi
         for IDE plug-ins or <code>tools.jar</code> for anything running on
         a standard JDK.
         <!-- #END_BLAZE_RULE.ATTRIBUTE --> */
+        .add(attr("use_ijar", BOOLEAN).value(false))
+        /* <!-- #BLAZE_RULE($java_import_base).ATTRIBUTE(use_ijar) -->
+        If you import an oft-changing JAR that doesn't have a Kotlin interface,
+        you can enable this as a caching optimization.
+        Temporarily available until ijar is updated to properly handle Kotlin.
+        For more, see https://github.com/bazelbuild/bazel/issues/4549.
+        <!-- #END_BLAZE_RULE.ATTRIBUTE --> */
         .add(attr("neverlink", BOOLEAN).value(false))
         /* <!-- #BLAZE_RULE($java_import_base).ATTRIBUTE(constraints) -->
         Extra constraints imposed on this rule as a Java library.