Is your table your storing the json data set to json? You should be able to pass it a normal PHP array and it should encode and store it/return it for you accordingly. Make sure to set it as an array in your Model's casts array.
Learn more about it https://mattstauffer.com/blog/new-json-column-where-and-update-syntax-in-laravel-5-3/
Migrations support json and jsonb columns (https://laravel.com/docs/5.6/migrations#creating-columns)
Docs + Articles: