Holding a portrait of his father, Liu Huanxin and the family's lawyers protest yesterday's ruling by the Tokyo High Court overturning a lower court ruling that awarded government compensation to Liu.(Photo:Xinhua)

The Tokyo High Court yesterday overturned a ruling that had for the first time awarded compensation to a Chinese man forced to labour in Japan during World War II.

In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao called on Tokyo to "seriously face and properly handle" the issue.

"Forced and enslaved labour was just one of the heinous crimes committed by Japanese militarists against Chinese people during World War II. The Japanese Government should take a responsible attitude towards history and shoulder its due responsibility," he said.

Liu Lianren, from East China's Shandong Province, was transported to Japan in 1944 and forced to work in a mine during the war.

He escaped in 1945 but spent the next 13 years hiding in the mountains of Hokkaido, unaware Japan had surrendered.

A landmark July 2001 ruling by the Tokyo District Court asked the Japanese Government to pay the family of Liu, who died in 2000 at the age of 87, 20 million yen (US$184,160) compensation.

The lower court had said it awarded the redress not to compensate for forced labour but rather to acknowledge the state's negligence in failing to find and protect Liu after the end of the war.

The high court acknowledged the government's failure to protect him was wrong, but rejected the family's demand for compensation, saying there was no mutual agreement concerning state redress between Japan and China. The Japanese Government appealed the July 2001 ruling.