diff --git a/sstables/open_info.hh b/sstables/open_info.hh
index 323e78490a..7a2dde6f62 100644
--- a/sstables/open_info.hh
+++ b/sstables/open_info.hh
@@ -79,6 +79,8 @@ struct sstable_open_config {
     // Mimics behavior when a SSTable is streamed to a given shard, where SSTable
     // writer considers the shard that created the SSTable as its owner.
     bool current_shard_as_sstable_owner = false;
+    // Do not move the sharding metadata to the sharder, keeping it in the scylla metadata..
+    bool keep_sharding_metadata = false;
 };
 
 }
diff --git a/sstables/sstables.cc b/sstables/sstables.cc
index 87a2a75005..13864b1fb7 100644
--- a/sstables/sstables.cc
+++ b/sstables/sstables.cc
@@ -1347,7 +1347,7 @@ future<> sstable::open_data(sstable_open_config cfg) noexcept {
     co_await update_info_for_opened_data(cfg);
     parse_assert(!_shards.empty(), get_filename());
     auto* sm = _components->scylla_metadata->data.get<scylla_metadata_type::Sharding, sharding_metadata>();
-    if (sm) {
+    if (sm && !cfg.keep_sharding_metadata) {
         // Sharding information uses a lot of memory and once we're doing with this computation we will no longer use it.
         co_await utils::clear_gently(sm->token_ranges.elements);
         sm->token_ranges.elements = {};
diff --git a/test/cqlpy/test_tools.py b/test/cqlpy/test_tools.py
index cdad320845..3ccb042b76 100644
--- a/test/cqlpy/test_tools.py
+++ b/test/cqlpy/test_tools.py
@@ -176,8 +176,14 @@ def test_scylla_sstable_dump_component(cql, test_keyspace, scylla_path, scylla_d
     print(out)
 
     assert out
-    assert json.loads(out)
+    json_out = json.loads(out)
+    assert json_out
 
+    if what == "scylla-metadata":
+        assert "sstables" in json_out, f"Expected 'sstables' in json output: {json_out}"
+        for sst_name, sst_metadata in json_out["sstables"].items():
+            assert "sharding" in sst_metadata, f"Expected 'sharding' metadata in sstable scylla-metadata: sstable={sst_name}: {sst_metadata}"
+            assert sst_metadata["sharding"] != [], f"Expected non-empty sharding metadata in sstable scylla-metadata: sstable={sst_name}: {sst_metadata}"
 
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("table_factory", [
         simple_no_clustering_table,
diff --git a/tools/scylla-sstable.cc b/tools/scylla-sstable.cc
index 0a8fe9f88d..4fadd468fc 100644
--- a/tools/scylla-sstable.cc
+++ b/tools/scylla-sstable.cc
@@ -350,7 +350,11 @@ const std::vector<sstables::shared_sstable> load_sstables(schema_ptr schema, sst
         auto sst = sst_man.make_sstable(schema, local, ed.generation, sstables::sstable_state::normal, ed.version, ed.format);
 
         try {
-            co_await sst->load(schema->get_sharder(), sstables::sstable_open_config{.load_first_and_last_position_metadata = false});
+            auto open_cfg = sstables::sstable_open_config{
+                .load_first_and_last_position_metadata = false,
+                .keep_sharding_metadata = true,
+            };
+            co_await sst->load(schema->get_sharder(), open_cfg);
         } catch (...) {
             // Print each individual error here since parallel_for_each
             // will propagate only one of them up the stack.
@@ -1503,6 +1507,9 @@ const char* to_string(sstables::ext_timestamp_stats_type t) {
 class scylla_metadata_visitor : public boost::static_visitor<> {
     json_writer& _writer;
 
+    dht::token as_token(const sstables::disk_string<uint16_t>& ds) const {
+        return dht::token(dht::token::kind::key, bytes_view(ds));
+    }
 public:
     scylla_metadata_visitor(json_writer& writer) : _writer(writer) { }
 
@@ -1516,7 +1523,7 @@ public:
             _writer.Key("exclusive");
             _writer.Bool(e.left.exclusive);
             _writer.Key("token");
-            _writer.String(disk_string_to_string(e.left.token));
+            _writer.AsString(as_token(e.left.token));
             _writer.EndObject();
 
             _writer.Key("right");
@@ -1524,7 +1531,7 @@ public:
             _writer.Key("exclusive");
             _writer.Bool(e.right.exclusive);
             _writer.Key("token");
-            _writer.String(disk_string_to_string(e.right.token));
+            _writer.AsString(as_token(e.right.token));
             _writer.EndObject();
 
             _writer.EndObject();