A court in Beijing Tuesday agreed to hear a case in which a group of Chinese victims of wartime forced labor are suing two Japanese firms for compensation. 

This is the first time such a case has officially entered the legal process in a Chinese court.

Lawyers for Mou Hanzhang, Zhang Shijie and 38 other forced laborers and their families filed a group lawsuit against Mitsubishi Materials Corporation and Nippon Coke & Engineering Company at Beijing No.1 Intermediate People's Court on February 26.

Since the group filed the suit, three more family members of victims have joined the case, bringing the total number of plaintiffs up to 40.

"The court accepting this case has great significance. It signals that a legal channel for resolving compensation issues for wartime forced labor is now officially open in Chinese courts while all attempts had failed in Japanese courts," Kang Jian, an attorney representing the laborers, told the Global Times.

"It's a great encouragement to the victims. Forced labor is a serious infringement on human rights everywhere in the world. Such cases are without borders," said Kang.

The victims group claimed that the two Japanese companies together had captured more than 9,000 Chinese laborers during World War II and forced them to work in mines and factories across Japan.

The laborers and their families demanded 1 million yuan ($163,000) compensation for each victim as well as an open apology in both Chinese and Japanese newspapers, including the People's Daily and Asahi Shimbun.

Zhang Yang, son of one of the surviving laborers Zhang Shijie, said on Tuesday at a press conference in Beijing that his father was very excited at the news.

"At the age of 88, he still remembers when, where and how he was captured. He still remembers the look of the coal mine he was forced to work at and many other details. He told the entire family after hearing the news that he finally has something to look forward to," he said. 

This is not the first time Chinese victims filed suit against Japanese firms in a domestic court. According to Kang, a similar lawsuit was filed in Shijia-

zhuang, North China's Hebei Province in 2000, but there was no subsequent hearing or trial.

Kang, who has been working on forced labor lawsuits since 1996, said she feels relieved after the court accepted the case.

"So many victims have passed away over the past 20 years. The opening up of the legal channel came a little late but it has finally arrived," said Kang.