SyntaxError: Unexpected token { in JSON at position 0 - node.js

Question

I am trying to parse a JSON file but getting an expected token, { at position 0.
SolaceConnetionParser.js
class SolaceConnectionParser {
constructor() { }
//TODO: cannot parse json correctly
parse(filepath) {
const connectionArgs = [];
console.log('File path: ' + filepath);
const rawData = fs.readFileSync(filepath, 'utf-8').toString;
const contents = JSON.parse(rawData);
return contents;
}
}
module.exports = SolaceConnectionParser;
const path = require('path');
const fs = require('fs');
const parser = new SolaceConnectionParser();
const filepath = path.join(__dirname + '../../../configs/test.json');
console.log(parser.parse(filepath));
test.json:
{
"key": "value"
}
Expected:
Rest of statements in code should output to console (i.e.: JSON contents).
Actual:
$ node SolaceConnectionParser.js
File path: C:\Users\u589329\Desktop\angular\dashboard_backend\dashboard_backend\src\configs\test.json
undefined:1
{
^
SyntaxError: Unexpected token in JSON at position 0
at JSON.parse (<anonymous>)
at SolaceConnectionParser.parse (C:\Users\u589329\Desktop\angular\dashboard_backend\dashboard_backend\src\app\solace\SolaceConnectionParser.js:9:31)
at Object.<anonymous> (C:\Users\u589329\Desktop\angular\dashboard_backend\dashboard_backend\src\app\solace\SolaceConnectionParser.js:26:31)
at Module._compile (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:701:30)
at Object.Module._extensions..js (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:712:10)
at Module.load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:600:32)
at tryModuleLoad (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:539:12)
at Function.Module._load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:531:3)
at Function.Module.runMain (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:754:12)
at startup (internal/bootstrap/node.js:283:19)

Answer 1

JSON objects are represented as Strings and fs.readFileSync() returns a Buffer.
Change
const rawData = fs.readFileSync(filepath, 'utf-8');
to
const rawData = fs.readFileSync(filepath, 'utf-8').toString();
and you should be good to go.

Answer 2

after applying Rob Raisch's answer and also trimming the string, problem was solved.
const rawData = fs.readFileSync(filepath, 'utf-8').toString().trim();