diff --git a/packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/cxapp/exec.ts b/packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/cxapp/exec.ts
index 7bea9bf569be6..237a966f2d8e9 100644
--- a/packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/cxapp/exec.ts
+++ b/packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/cxapp/exec.ts
@@ -78,6 +78,7 @@ export async function execProgram(aws: SDK, config: Settings): Promise<cxapi.Syn
       const proc = childProcess.spawn(commandLine[0], commandLine.slice(1), {
         stdio: ['ignore', 'inherit', 'inherit'],
         detached: false,
+        shell: true,
         env: {
           ...process.env,
           ...env
diff --git a/packages/aws-cdk/lib/init-templates/app/java/app.sh b/packages/aws-cdk/lib/init-templates/app/java/app.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index 210e90b76344a..0000000000000
--- a/packages/aws-cdk/lib/init-templates/app/java/app.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,6 +0,0 @@
-#!/bin/bash
-# This script is configured in cdk.json to be used to execute
-# the CDK java app by the command-line toolkit.
-# The file .classpath.txt is created by when `mvn package` is called
-# The first argument will be used as argv[0]
-exec java -cp target/classes:$(cat .classpath.txt) com.myorg.HelloApp hello-cdk $@
diff --git a/packages/aws-cdk/lib/init-templates/app/java/cdk.json b/packages/aws-cdk/lib/init-templates/app/java/cdk.json
index 715bd08558835..e497768650161 100644
--- a/packages/aws-cdk/lib/init-templates/app/java/cdk.json
+++ b/packages/aws-cdk/lib/init-templates/app/java/cdk.json
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 {
-  "app": "/bin/bash ./app.sh"
+  "app": "mvn exec:java"
 }
diff --git a/packages/aws-cdk/lib/init-templates/app/java/pom.template.xml b/packages/aws-cdk/lib/init-templates/app/java/pom.template.xml
index 2bf05b618696e..6550a6e65039d 100644
--- a/packages/aws-cdk/lib/init-templates/app/java/pom.template.xml
+++ b/packages/aws-cdk/lib/init-templates/app/java/pom.template.xml
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
-<project xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd" xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
+<project xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd"
+         xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
     <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
 
     <groupId>com.myorg</groupId>
@@ -22,23 +23,13 @@
                 </configuration>
             </plugin>
 
-            <!-- Emit the classpath to ./.classpath.txt so cdk.json can use it -->
             <plugin>
-                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
-                <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
-                <version>2.8</version>
-                <executions>
-                <execution>
-                    <id>build-classpath</id>
-                    <phase>generate-sources</phase>
-                    <goals>
-                        <goal>build-classpath</goal>
-                    </goals>
-                    <configuration>
-                        <outputFile>.classpath.txt</outputFile>
-                    </configuration>
-                </execution>
-                </executions>
+                <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
+                <artifactId>exec-maven-plugin</artifactId>
+                <version>1.6.0</version>
+                <configuration>
+                    <mainClass>com.myorg.HelloApp</mainClass>
+                </configuration>
             </plugin>
         </plugins>
     </build>