diff --git a/rest_framework_json_api/exceptions.py b/rest_framework_json_api/exceptions.py
index 1e976dfe..935fecdb 100644
--- a/rest_framework_json_api/exceptions.py
+++ b/rest_framework_json_api/exceptions.py
@@ -2,12 +2,18 @@
 from django.utils import six, encoding
 from django.utils.translation import ugettext_lazy as _
 from rest_framework import status, exceptions
-from rest_framework.views import exception_handler as drf_exception_handler
 
 from rest_framework_json_api.utils import format_value
 
 
 def exception_handler(exc, context):
+    # Import this here to avoid potential edge-case circular imports, which
+    # crashes with:
+    # "ImportError: Could not import 'rest_framework_json_api.parsers.JSONParser' for API setting
+    # 'DEFAULT_PARSER_CLASSES'. ImportError: cannot import name 'exceptions'.'"
+    #
+    # Also see: https://github.com/django-json-api/django-rest-framework-json-api/issues/158
+    from rest_framework.views import exception_handler as drf_exception_handler
     response = drf_exception_handler(exc, context)
 
     if not response: