diff --git a/numpy/f2py/tests/util.py b/numpy/f2py/tests/util.py
index 75b257cdb825..6ed6c0855fb8 100644
--- a/numpy/f2py/tests/util.py
+++ b/numpy/f2py/tests/util.py
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
 import numpy
 
 from pathlib import Path
+from numpy.compat import asstr
 from numpy._utils import asunicode
 from numpy.testing import temppath, IS_WASM
 from importlib import import_module