China hopes the Japanese government will seriously carry out the ruling made by a Japanese court on the compensation for Chinese laborers, and properly handle issues left o ver by history, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue Tuesday.

Zhang told a regular press conference that the abduction of Chinese laborers was a severe crime committed by Japanese militarists during World War II.

China hopes the Japanese government will treat the ruling seriously and resolve the issue with an attitude of being responsible for history, she said.

The High Court of west Japan's Hiroshima Prefecture awarded damages in full last Friday to a group of Chinese who were forced to work in harsh conditions at a construction site in the prefecture during World War II.

The high court overturned a July 2002 lower court ruling that rejected Chinese plaintiffs' lawsuit against Nishimatsu Construction Co., a construction firm based in Tokyo.

It was the first favorable judgment made by a Japanese court ona lawsuit concerning Chinese forced laborers during World War II.

Source: Xinhua