diff --git a/Config.in b/Config.in
index a98a8b15b..214eba546 100644
--- a/Config.in
+++ b/Config.in
@@ -108,6 +108,16 @@ config LFS
 	programs that can benefit from large file support include dd, gzip,
 	cp, mount, tar.
 
+config TIME64
+	bool "Support 64bit wide time types"
+	default y
+	depends on LFS
+	help
+	Make times later than 2038 representable for several libc syscalls
+	(stat, clk_gettime etc.). Note this switch is specific to glibc and has
+	no effect on platforms that already use 64bit wide time types (i.e. all
+	64bit archs and some selected 32bit archs (currently riscv and x32)).
+
 config PAM
 	bool "Support PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules)"
 	default n
diff --git a/Makefile.flags b/Makefile.flags
index 1cec5ba20..e4cd658fd 100644
--- a/Makefile.flags
+++ b/Makefile.flags
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ CPPFLAGS += \
 	-include include/autoconf.h \
 	-D_GNU_SOURCE -DNDEBUG \
 	$(if $(CONFIG_LFS),-D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE -D_LARGEFILE64_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64) \
+	$(if $(CONFIG_TIME64),-D_TIME_BITS=64) \
 	-DBB_VER=$(squote)$(quote)$(BB_VER)$(quote)$(squote)
 
 CFLAGS += $(call cc-option,-Wall,)