diff --git a/do-release.sh b/do-release.sh
index bb641e66e1..8723c0a5b1 100755
--- a/do-release.sh
+++ b/do-release.sh
@@ -69,10 +69,10 @@ echo "Releasing PMD"
 echo "-------------------------------------------"
 
 
-MVN_VERSION=$(mvn --version | grep "Java version: 1.6")
+MVN_VERSION=$(mvn --version | grep "Java version: 1.7")
 if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
     echo "Wrong java version!"
-    echo "Expected 1.6, but was:"
+    echo "Expected 1.7, but was:"
     mvn --version
     exit 1
 fi
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index e4c8b9f14b..a3789b88aa 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -263,7 +263,7 @@
         <checkstyle.version>2.13</checkstyle.version>
         <clover.version>2.5.1</clover.version>
         <pmd.plugin.version>3.5</pmd.plugin.version>
-        <java.version>1.6</java.version>
+        <java.version>1.7</java.version>
         <ant.version>1.9.4</ant.version>
         <javadoc.plugin.version>2.10.1</javadoc.plugin.version>
 
diff --git a/src/site/markdown/customizing/compiling.md.vm b/src/site/markdown/customizing/compiling.md.vm
index d63ef2336a..44336e48a7 100644
--- a/src/site/markdown/customizing/compiling.md.vm
+++ b/src/site/markdown/customizing/compiling.md.vm
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 
 ## Requirements
 
-*   JDK 1.6 or higher
+*   JDK 1.7 or higher
 *   [Apache Maven][maven] 3 or later.
 
 [maven]: http://maven.apache.org
diff --git a/src/site/markdown/overview/changelog.md b/src/site/markdown/overview/changelog.md
index 57f0be6929..7d6e02c1d9 100644
--- a/src/site/markdown/overview/changelog.md
+++ b/src/site/markdown/overview/changelog.md
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 
 ## ????? - 5.4.0-SNAPSHOT
 
+**Note**: PMD 5.4.0 requires JDK 1.7 or above.
 
 **New Supported Languages:**
 
@@ -82,6 +83,7 @@
 
 **API Changes:**
 
+*   pmd requires now JDK 1.7 or above.
 *   pmd-core: `net.sourceforge.pmd.lang.symboltable.Scope`: The method `addNameOccurrence` returns now a Set of
     NameDeclarations to which the given occurrence has been added. This is useful in case there are ambiguous declarations
     of methods.