diff --git a/src/ostree/ot-admin-builtin-os-init.c b/src/ostree/ot-admin-builtin-os-init.c
index 123e085a..0536167a 100644
--- a/src/ostree/ot-admin-builtin-os-init.c
+++ b/src/ostree/ot-admin-builtin-os-init.c
@@ -63,10 +63,11 @@ ot_admin_builtin_os_init (int argc, char **argv, OtAdminBuiltinOpts *admin_opts,
   deploy_dir = ot_gfile_get_child_build_path (ostree_dir, "deploy", osname, NULL);
 
   /* Ensure core subdirectories of /var exist, since we need them for
-   * dracut generation, and the host will want them too.
+   * dracut generation, and the host will want them too.  Note that at
+   * the moment we pre-create /var/log/journal to cater to systemd.
    */
   g_clear_object (&dir);
-  dir = ot_gfile_get_child_build_path (deploy_dir, "var", "log", NULL);
+  dir = ot_gfile_get_child_build_path (deploy_dir, "var", "log", "journal", NULL);
   if (!gs_file_ensure_directory (dir, TRUE, cancellable, error))
     goto out;