diff --git a/package/docker-engine/docker-engine.mk b/package/docker-engine/docker-engine.mk
index c4c1157f43..0176f51bb0 100644
--- a/package/docker-engine/docker-engine.mk
+++ b/package/docker-engine/docker-engine.mk
@@ -42,6 +42,11 @@ DOCKER_ENGINE_BUILD_TAGS += seccomp
 DOCKER_ENGINE_DEPENDENCIES += libseccomp
 endif
 
+ifeq ($(BR2_INIT_SYSTEMD),y)
+DOCKER_ENGINE_BUILD_TAGS += journald
+DOCKER_ENGINE_DEPENDENCIES += systemd
+endif
+
 ifeq ($(BR2_PACKAGE_DOCKER_ENGINE_DAEMON),y)
 DOCKER_ENGINE_BUILD_TAGS += daemon
 DOCKER_ENGINE_BUILD_TARGETS += dockerd