diff --git a/akka-cluster-sharding/src/main/scala/akka/cluster/sharding/ClusterSharding.scala b/akka-cluster-sharding/src/main/scala/akka/cluster/sharding/ClusterSharding.scala
index 9882a6bc3c..ed50afb403 100755
--- a/akka-cluster-sharding/src/main/scala/akka/cluster/sharding/ClusterSharding.scala
+++ b/akka-cluster-sharding/src/main/scala/akka/cluster/sharding/ClusterSharding.scala
@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@ package akka.cluster.sharding
 import java.net.URLEncoder
 import java.util.Optional
 import java.util.concurrent.ConcurrentHashMap
-import java.util.function.{ Function ⇒ JFunc }
 
 import scala.collection.JavaConverters._
 import scala.collection.immutable
@@ -158,7 +157,6 @@ object ClusterSharding extends ExtensionId[ClusterSharding] with ExtensionIdProv
  * @see [[ClusterSharding$ ClusterSharding companion object]]
  */
 class ClusterSharding(system: ExtendedActorSystem) extends Extension {
-
   import ClusterShardingGuardian._
   import ShardCoordinator.LeastShardAllocationStrategy
   import ShardCoordinator.ShardAllocationStrategy
@@ -231,18 +229,20 @@ class ClusterSharding(system: ExtendedActorSystem) extends Extension {
     handOffStopMessage: Any): ActorRef = {
 
     if (settings.shouldHostShard(cluster)) {
-      regions.computeIfAbsent(typeName, new JFunc[String, ActorRef] {
-        def apply(typeName: String): ActorRef = {
+      regions.get(typeName) match {
+        case null ⇒
+          // it's ok to Start several time, the guardian will deduplicate concurrent requests
           implicit val timeout = system.settings.CreationTimeout
           val startMsg = Start(typeName, entityProps, settings,
             extractEntityId, extractShardId, allocationStrategy, handOffStopMessage)
           val Started(shardRegion) = Await.result(guardian ? startMsg, timeout.duration)
+          regions.put(typeName, shardRegion)
           shardRegion
-        }
-      })
-
+        case ref ⇒ ref // already started, use cached ActorRef
+      }
     } else {
       log.debug("Starting Shard Region Proxy [{}] (no actors will be hosted on this node)...", typeName)
+
       startProxy(
         typeName,
         settings.role,
@@ -417,16 +417,19 @@ class ClusterSharding(system: ExtendedActorSystem) extends Extension {
     dataCenter:      Option[DataCenter],
     extractEntityId: ShardRegion.ExtractEntityId,
     extractShardId:  ShardRegion.ExtractShardId): ActorRef = {
-    // it must be possible to start several proxies, one per data center
-    proxies.computeIfAbsent(proxyName(typeName, dataCenter), new JFunc[String, ActorRef] {
-      def apply(name: String): ActorRef = {
+
+    proxies.get(proxyName(typeName, dataCenter)) match {
+      case null ⇒
+        // it's ok to StartProxy several time, the guardian will deduplicate concurrent requests
         implicit val timeout = system.settings.CreationTimeout
         val settings = ClusterShardingSettings(system).withRole(role)
         val startMsg = StartProxy(typeName, dataCenter, settings, extractEntityId, extractShardId)
         val Started(shardRegion) = Await.result(guardian ? startMsg, timeout.duration)
+        // it must be possible to start several proxies, one per data center
+        proxies.put(proxyName(typeName, dataCenter), shardRegion)
         shardRegion
-      }
-    })
+      case ref ⇒ ref // already started, use cached ActorRef
+    }
   }
 
   private def proxyName(typeName: String, dataCenter: Option[DataCenter]): String = {
diff --git a/akka-cluster-sharding/src/test/scala/akka/cluster/sharding/ConcurrentStartupShardingSpec.scala b/akka-cluster-sharding/src/test/scala/akka/cluster/sharding/ConcurrentStartupShardingSpec.scala
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..2ab66fb088
--- /dev/null
+++ b/akka-cluster-sharding/src/test/scala/akka/cluster/sharding/ConcurrentStartupShardingSpec.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,83 @@
+/**
+ * Copyright (C) 2017-2018 Lightbend Inc. <https://www.lightbend.com>
+ */
+
+package akka.cluster.sharding
+
+import scala.concurrent.duration._
+
+import akka.actor.Actor
+import akka.actor.ActorRef
+import akka.actor.Props
+import akka.cluster.Cluster
+import akka.cluster.MemberStatus
+import akka.testkit.AkkaSpec
+import akka.testkit.DeadLettersFilter
+import akka.testkit.TestEvent.Mute
+
+object ConcurrentStartupShardingSpec {
+
+  val config =
+    """
+    akka.actor.provider = "cluster"
+    akka.remote.netty.tcp.port = 0
+    akka.remote.artery.canonical.port = 0
+    akka.log-dead-letters = off
+    akka.log-dead-letters-during-shutdown = off
+
+    akka.actor {
+      default-dispatcher {
+        executor = "fork-join-executor"
+        fork-join-executor {
+          parallelism-min = 5
+          parallelism-max = 5
+        }
+      }
+    }
+    """
+
+  object Starter {
+    def props(n: Int, probe: ActorRef): Props =
+      Props(new Starter(n, probe))
+  }
+
+  class Starter(n: Int, probe: ActorRef) extends Actor {
+
+    override def preStart(): Unit = {
+      val region = ClusterSharding(context.system).start(s"type-$n", Props.empty, ClusterShardingSettings(context.system),
+        { case msg ⇒ (msg.toString, msg) },
+        _ ⇒ "1")
+      probe ! region
+    }
+
+    def receive = {
+      case _ ⇒
+    }
+  }
+}
+
+class ConcurrentStartupShardingSpec extends AkkaSpec(ConcurrentStartupShardingSpec.config) {
+  import ConcurrentStartupShardingSpec._
+
+  // mute logging of deadLetters
+  if (!log.isDebugEnabled)
+    system.eventStream.publish(Mute(DeadLettersFilter[Any]))
+
+  // The intended usage is to start sharding in one (or a few) places when the the ActorSystem
+  // is started and not to do it concurrently from many threads. However, we can do our best and when using
+  // FJP the Await will create additional threads when needed.
+  "Concurrent Sharding startup" must {
+    "init cluster" in {
+      Cluster(system).join(Cluster(system).selfAddress)
+      awaitAssert(Cluster(system).selfMember.status should ===(MemberStatus.Up))
+
+      val total = 20
+      (1 to total).foreach { n ⇒
+        system.actorOf(Starter.props(n, testActor))
+      }
+
+      receiveN(total, 60.seconds)
+    }
+  }
+
+}