diff --git a/lib/coderay/scanners/java_script.rb b/lib/coderay/scanners/java_script.rb
index 9eb0a0a1..4a5d4a2f 100644
--- a/lib/coderay/scanners/java_script.rb
+++ b/lib/coderay/scanners/java_script.rb
@@ -113,7 +113,8 @@ def scan_tokens encoder, options
             function_expected = key_expected = value_expected = false
             encoder.text_token match, :operator
             
-          elsif match = scan(/ [$a-zA-Z_][A-Za-z_0-9$]* /x)
+          # Follows http://es5.github.io/x7.html#x7.6, but does not honor "A UnicodeEscapeSequence cannot be used to put a character into an IdentifierName that would otherwise be illegal."
+          elsif match = scan(/ ([\p{Lu}\p{Ll}\p{Lt}\p{Lm}\p{Lo}\p{Nl}$_]|\\u[0-9a-fA-F]{4})([\p{Lu}\p{Ll}\p{Lt}\p{Lm}\p{Lo}\p{Nl}$_\p{Mn}\{Mc}\p{Nd}\p{Pc}\u200C\u200D]|\\u[0-9a-fA-F]{4})* /x)
             kind = IDENT_KIND[match]
             value_expected = (kind == :keyword) && KEYWORDS_EXPECTING_VALUE[match]
             # TODO: labels
diff --git a/test/functional/basic.rb b/test/functional/basic.rb
index 752d4ba0..9c684656 100755
--- a/test/functional/basic.rb
+++ b/test/functional/basic.rb
@@ -314,5 +314,42 @@ def test_scan_a_non_string
       CodeRay.highlight CodeRay, :plain
     end
   end
+
+  JS_UNICODE_IDENT_TEST_CODE = 'var 動 = 1;'
   
+  JS_UNICODE_IDENT_TEST_TOKENS = [
+    ['var', :keyword],
+    [' ', :space],
+    ['動', :ident],
+    [' ', :space],
+    ['=', :operator],
+    [' ', :space],
+    ["1", :integer],
+    [";", :operator]
+  ].flatten
+  def test_js_scan_unicode_ident_token
+    assert_nothing_raised do
+      assert_equal JS_UNICODE_IDENT_TEST_TOKENS, CodeRay.scan(JS_UNICODE_IDENT_TEST_CODE, :java_script).tokens
+    end
+  end
+
+  # Actual JS variable name is \u1212 here, extra backslash is to escape Ruby
+  JS_ESCAPED_UNICODE_IDENT_TEST_CODE = 'var \\u1212 = 1;'
+
+  JS_ESCAPED_UNICODE_IDENT_TEST_TOKENS = [
+    ['var', :keyword],
+    [' ', :space],
+    ['\\u1212', :ident],
+    [' ', :space],
+    ['=', :operator],
+    [' ', :space],
+    ["1", :integer],
+    [";", :operator]
+  ].flatten
+  def test_js_scan_escaped_unicode_ident_token
+    assert_nothing_raised do
+      assert_equal JS_ESCAPED_UNICODE_IDENT_TEST_TOKENS, CodeRay.scan(JS_ESCAPED_UNICODE_IDENT_TEST_CODE, :java_script).tokens
+    end
+  end
+
 end