diff --git a/docs/pages/release_notes.md b/docs/pages/release_notes.md
index f6853072df..1a217974fd 100644
--- a/docs/pages/release_notes.md
+++ b/docs/pages/release_notes.md
@@ -43,6 +43,9 @@ The remaining section describes the complete release notes for 7.0.0.
 
 #### Fixed issues
 
+* java-codestyle
+  * [#4578](https://github.com/pmd/pmd/issues/4578): \[java] CommentDefaultAccessModifier comment needs to be before annotation if present
+
 #### API Changes
 
 #### External Contributions
@@ -558,6 +561,7 @@ Language specific fixes:
     * [#4511](https://github.com/pmd/pmd/issues/4511): \[java] LocalVariableCouldBeFinal shouldn't report unused variables
     * [#4512](https://github.com/pmd/pmd/issues/4512): \[java] MethodArgumentCouldBeFinal shouldn't report unused parameters
     * [#4557](https://github.com/pmd/pmd/issues/4557): \[java] UnnecessaryImport FP with static imports of overloaded methods
+    * [#4578](https://github.com/pmd/pmd/issues/4578): \[java] CommentDefaultAccessModifier comment needs to be before annotation if present
 * java-design
     * [#1014](https://github.com/pmd/pmd/issues/1014): \[java] LawOfDemeter: False positive with lambda expression
     * [#1605](https://github.com/pmd/pmd/issues/1605): \[java] LawOfDemeter: False positive for standard UTF-8 charset name
diff --git a/pmd-java/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/java/ast/JavaComment.java b/pmd-java/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/java/ast/JavaComment.java
index d88681e3ab..d2655ae5e0 100644
--- a/pmd-java/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/java/ast/JavaComment.java
+++ b/pmd-java/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/java/ast/JavaComment.java
@@ -132,16 +132,27 @@ public class JavaComment implements Reportable {
         return line.subSequence(subseqFrom, line.length()).trim();
     }
 
-    private static Stream<JavaccToken> getSpecialCommentsIn(JjtreeNode<?> node) {
+    private static Stream<JavaccToken> getSpecialTokensIn(JjtreeNode<?> node) {
         return GenericToken.streamRange(node.getFirstToken(), node.getLastToken())
                            .flatMap(it -> IteratorUtil.toStream(GenericToken.previousSpecials(it).iterator()));
     }
 
     public static Stream<JavaComment> getLeadingComments(JavaNode node) {
+        Stream<JavaccToken> specialTokens;
+        
         if (node instanceof AccessNode) {
             node = ((AccessNode) node).getModifiers();
+            specialTokens = getSpecialTokensIn(node);
+            
+            // if this was a non-implicit empty modifier node, we should also consider comments immediately after
+            if (!node.getFirstToken().isImplicit()) {
+                specialTokens = Stream.concat(specialTokens, getSpecialTokensIn(node.getNextSibling()));
+            }
+        } else {
+            specialTokens = getSpecialTokensIn(node);
         }
-        return getSpecialCommentsIn(node).filter(JavaComment::isComment)
+        
+        return specialTokens.filter(JavaComment::isComment)
                                          .map(JavaComment::toComment);
     }
 
diff --git a/pmd-java/src/test/resources/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/java/rule/codestyle/xml/CommentDefaultAccessModifier.xml b/pmd-java/src/test/resources/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/java/rule/codestyle/xml/CommentDefaultAccessModifier.xml
index 6a42aa94f3..8ce22f0ebe 100755
--- a/pmd-java/src/test/resources/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/java/rule/codestyle/xml/CommentDefaultAccessModifier.xml
+++ b/pmd-java/src/test/resources/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/java/rule/codestyle/xml/CommentDefaultAccessModifier.xml
@@ -564,6 +564,22 @@ class C {
 
     @AfterSuite
     void afterSuite() {}
+}
+        ]]></code>
+    </test-code>
+    
+    <test-code>
+        <description>#4578 failure with comment after annotation</description>
+        <expected-problems>0</expected-problems>
+        <code><![CDATA[
+public class Test {
+    @SuppressWarnings("")
+    /* package */ void test1() {
+    }
+
+    /* package */ @SuppressWarnings("")
+    void test2() {
+    }
 }
         ]]></code>
     </test-code>