diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 8820792..da014ec 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -106,6 +106,8 @@ This instruction is originally written by [@lahoffm](https://github.com/lahoffm)
 - multiple_tables (bool, optional):
   - (Experimental) Extract multiple tables.
   - This option uses JSON as an intermediate format, so if tabula-java output format will change, this option doesn't work.
+- user_agent (str, optional)
+  - Set a custom user-agent when download a pdf from a url. Otherwise it uses the default urllib.request user-agent
 
 
 ## FAQ
diff --git a/tabula/file_util.py b/tabula/file_util.py
index e6fa311..dc5c0ff 100644
--- a/tabula/file_util.py
+++ b/tabula/file_util.py
@@ -6,12 +6,12 @@
 PY3 = sys.version_info[0] >= 3
 
 if PY3:
-    from urllib.request import urlopen
+    from urllib.request import urlopen, Request
     from urllib.parse import urlparse as parse_url
     from urllib.parse import uses_relative, uses_netloc, uses_params
     text_type = str
 else:
-    from urllib2 import urlopen
+    from urllib2 import urlopen, Request
     from urlparse import urlparse as parse_url
     from urlparse import uses_relative, uses_netloc, uses_params
     text_type = unicode
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@
 _VALID_URLS.discard('')
 
 
-def localize_file(path_or_buffer):
+def localize_file(path_or_buffer, user_agent=None):
     '''Ensure localize target file.
 
     If the target file is remote, this function fetches into local storage.
@@ -38,7 +38,10 @@ def localize_file(path_or_buffer):
     path_or_buffer = _stringify_path(path_or_buffer)
 
     if _is_url(path_or_buffer):
-        req = urlopen(path_or_buffer)
+        if user_agent:
+            req = urlopen(_create_request(path_or_buffer, user_agent))
+        else:
+            req = urlopen(path_or_buffer)
         filename = os.path.basename(req.geturl())
         if os.path.splitext(filename)[-1] is not ".pdf":
             pid = os.getpid()
@@ -71,6 +74,10 @@ def _is_url(url):
         return False
 
 
+def _create_request(path_or_buffer, user_agent):
+    req_headers = {'User-Agent': user_agent}
+    return Request(path_or_buffer, headers=req_headers)
+
 def is_file_like(obj):
     '''Check file like object
 
diff --git a/tabula/wrapper.py b/tabula/wrapper.py
index 37801fe..0dabaf9 100644
--- a/tabula/wrapper.py
+++ b/tabula/wrapper.py
@@ -127,7 +127,9 @@ def read_pdf(input_path,
         if not any(filter(r.find, java_options)):
             java_options = java_options + ['-Dfile.encoding=UTF8']
 
-    path, temporary = localize_file(input_path)
+    user_agent = kwargs.pop('user_agent', None)
+
+    path, temporary = localize_file(input_path, user_agent)
 
     if not os.path.exists(path):
         raise FileNotFoundError(errno.ENOENT, os.strerror(errno.ENOENT), path)
diff --git a/tests/test_read_pdf_table.py b/tests/test_read_pdf_table.py
index 3907535..efe30ee 100644
--- a/tests/test_read_pdf_table.py
+++ b/tests/test_read_pdf_table.py
@@ -12,9 +12,11 @@
 try:
     FileNotFoundError
     from unittest.mock import patch
+    from urllib.request import Request
 except NameError:
     FileNotFoundError = IOError
     from mock import patch
+    from urllib2 import Request
 
 
 class TestReadPdfTable(unittest.TestCase):
@@ -30,6 +32,12 @@ def test_read_remote_pdf(self):
         df = tabula.read_pdf(uri)
         self.assertTrue(isinstance(df, pd.DataFrame))
 
+    def test_read_remote_pdf_with_custom_user_agent(self):
+        uri = "https://github.com/tabulapdf/tabula-java/raw/master/src/test/resources/technology/tabula/12s0324.pdf"
+
+        df = tabula.read_pdf(uri, user_agent='Mozilla/5.0')
+        self.assertTrue(isinstance(df, pd.DataFrame))
+
     def test_read_pdf_into_json(self):
         pdf_path = 'tests/resources/data.pdf'
         expected_json = 'tests/resources/data_1.json'
diff --git a/tests/test_util.py b/tests/test_util.py
index e4825d9..ab523c4 100644
--- a/tests/test_util.py
+++ b/tests/test_util.py
@@ -1,11 +1,36 @@
 import unittest
 import tabula
 
+try:
+    FileNotFoundError
+    from unittest.mock import patch, MagicMock
+    from urllib.request import Request
+except NameError:
+    FileNotFoundError = IOError
+    from mock import patch, MagicMock
+    from urllib2 import Request
+
 
 class TestUtil(unittest.TestCase):
     def test_environment_info(self):
         self.assertEqual(tabula.environment_info(), None)
 
+    @patch('tabula.file_util.shutil.copyfileobj')
+    @patch('tabula.file_util.urlopen')
+    @patch('tabula.file_util._create_request')
+    def test_localize_file_with_user_agent(self, mock_fun, mock_urlopen, mock_copyfileobj):
+        uri = "https://github.com/tabulapdf/tabula-java/raw/master/src/test/resources/technology/tabula/12s0324.pdf"
+        user_agent='Mozilla/5.0'
+
+        cm = MagicMock()
+        cm.getcode.return_value = 200
+        cm.read.return_value = b'contents'
+        cm.geturl.return_value = uri
+        mock_urlopen.return_value = cm
+
+        tabula.file_util.localize_file(uri, user_agent=user_agent)
+        mock_fun.assert_called_with(uri, user_agent)
+
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     unittest.main()