Six worker representatives signed the pleadings Thursday of a lawsuit against the Japanese company Mitsubishi Materials Corp on behalf of 2,706 Chinese, who worked as forced laborers during World War II, to demand both an apology and compensation in east China's Shandong Province.

The suit against Mitsubishi Corporation (Qingdao) Ltd. and Yantai Mitsubishi Cement Co. Ltd will be sent to Shandong Higher People's Court Friday by their lawyer.

The signing ceremony was held in Fengcheng Hotel near the railway station of Shandong Province's Gaomi City.

According to the pleadings, the workers, all aged over 80, demand the Japanese companies, which they once were forced to work for, apologize and pay each of the workers compensation of 100,000 yuan (14,730 U.S. dollars).

This marks the first lawsuit filed by Chinese workers in China against Japanese companies and the latest lawsuit regarding wartime forced Chinese labor, as similar moves filed in Japan against Japanese companies over the past two decades have failed.

Around 40,000 Chinese, one-fourth of whom were from Shandong, were forced to work in Japan during World War II. Of them, 7,000 died there, said Fu Qiang, the lawyer of the workers and head of Shandong Pengfei Law Office.

Mitsubishi Materials Corp forced more than 2,700 Chinese to work at nine mines, Fu said. He added that Mitsubishi Materials contracted two mines to other Japanese companies that also used forced Chinese laborers.

Most of Mitsubishi Materials' Chinese forced laborers were from Weifang, Jinan and Zibo in Shandong, the lawyer said.

Japanese courts have rejected all compensation claims in 15 lawsuits filed over forced Chinese laborers since the 1990s, saying that individual rights of Chinese nationals for war reparations were discarded under the 1972 Japan-China joint statement.