diff --git a/icu4j/build.xml b/icu4j/build.xml
index a2f789b85ac..329790cfce0 100644
--- a/icu4j/build.xml
+++ b/icu4j/build.xml
@@ -917,7 +917,7 @@
 
     <target name="_docsLintOption" unless="doclint.options">
         <!-- syntax check is disabled because JCite tag name "@.jcite" is invalidated -->
-        <condition property="doclint.option" value="-Xdoclint:all,-accessibility,-syntax" else="">
+        <condition property="doclint.option" value="-Xdoclint:reference,html" else="">
             <isset property="is.java8.plus"/>
         </condition>
     </target>
diff --git a/icu4j/main/classes/core/src/com/ibm/icu/text/BidiTransform.java b/icu4j/main/classes/core/src/com/ibm/icu/text/BidiTransform.java
index 656f29cdb9d..692aa6a54b4 100644
--- a/icu4j/main/classes/core/src/com/ibm/icu/text/BidiTransform.java
+++ b/icu4j/main/classes/core/src/com/ibm/icu/text/BidiTransform.java
@@ -175,7 +175,7 @@ public class BidiTransform
      * <li>{Logical LTR, Visual RTL},</li>
      * <li>{Visual RTL, Logical RTL}.</li>
      * </ul>
-     * <p>Example of usage of the transformation engine:<br>
+     * <p>Example of usage of the transformation engine:</p>
      * <pre>
      * BidiTransform bidiTransform = new BidiTransform();
      * String in = "abc \u06f0123"; // "abc \\u06f0123"
@@ -197,7 +197,6 @@ public class BidiTransform
      *          ArabicShaping.DIGITS_EN2AN | ArabicShaping.DIGIT_TYPE_AN_EXTENDED);
      * // Result: "abc \\u06f4\\u06f1\\u06f2\\u06f3"
      * </pre>
-     * </p>
      *
      * @param text An input character sequence that the Bidi layout
      *        transformations will be performed on.
diff --git a/icu4j/main/classes/core/src/com/ibm/icu/text/DecimalFormatSymbols.java b/icu4j/main/classes/core/src/com/ibm/icu/text/DecimalFormatSymbols.java
index 7bd446ec9c5..b769256325a 100644
--- a/icu4j/main/classes/core/src/com/ibm/icu/text/DecimalFormatSymbols.java
+++ b/icu4j/main/classes/core/src/com/ibm/icu/text/DecimalFormatSymbols.java
@@ -185,7 +185,7 @@ public class DecimalFormatSymbols implements Cloneable, Serializable {
     /**
      * Sets the character used for zero.
      * <p>
-     * <b>Note:</p> When the specified zeroDigit is a Unicode decimal digit character
+     * <b>Note:</b> When the specified zeroDigit is a Unicode decimal digit character
      * (category:Nd) and the number value is 0, then this method propagate digit 1 to
      * digit 9 by incrementing code point one by one.
      *
diff --git a/icu4j/main/classes/core/src/com/ibm/icu/text/SpoofChecker.java b/icu4j/main/classes/core/src/com/ibm/icu/text/SpoofChecker.java
index a7ad518105a..a80ba9efebf 100644
--- a/icu4j/main/classes/core/src/com/ibm/icu/text/SpoofChecker.java
+++ b/icu4j/main/classes/core/src/com/ibm/icu/text/SpoofChecker.java
@@ -98,7 +98,6 @@ import com.ibm.icu.util.ULocale;
  * shown below:
  *
  * <pre>
- * <code>
  * // Setup:
  * String[] DICTIONARY = new String[]{ "lorem", "ipsum" }; // example
  * SpoofChecker sc = new SpoofChecker.Builder().setChecks(SpoofChecker.CONFUSABLE).build();
@@ -110,7 +109,6 @@ import com.ibm.icu.util.ULocale;
  * // Live Check:
  * boolean result = skeletons.contains(sc.getSkeleton("1orern"));
  * System.out.println(result);  // true
- * </code>
  * </pre>
  *
  * <p>
@@ -124,7 +122,6 @@ import com.ibm.icu.util.ULocale;
  * The following snippet shows a minimal example of using <code>SpoofChecker</code> to perform spoof detection on a
  * string:
  *
- * <code>
  * <pre>
  * SpoofChecker sc = new SpoofChecker.Builder()
  *     .setAllowedChars(SpoofChecker.RECOMMENDED.cloneAsThawed().addAll(SpoofChecker.INCLUSION))
@@ -134,7 +131,6 @@ import com.ibm.icu.util.ULocale;
  * boolean result = sc.failsChecks("pаypаl");  // with Cyrillic 'а' characters
  * System.out.println(result);  // true
  * </pre>
- * </code>
  *
  * <p>
  * As in the case for confusability checking, it is good practice to create one <code>SpoofChecker</code> instance at