Relatives of deceased Chinese forced laborers, accompanied by lawyer Kang Jian (center, in blue coat), attend Beijing No 1 Intermediate People's Court on Feb 26, 2014, to sue two Japanese companies over forced labor during World War II.  WANG JING / CHINA DAILY

The report said that the Mitsubishi Materials and the group of Chinese plaintiffs reached an agreement to settle the forced labor case through the compensation and apology plan.

Previous lawsuits filed by Chinese victims were all rejected by Japanese courts.About 40,000 Chinese were forcibly taken or kidnapped to Japan during the World War II and were enslaved as forced labor and about 7,000 of them died at that time.

Japan's ties with China and South Korea, which suffered most from Japan's wartime atrocities, are frayed partially for historical issues, including the compensation and apology to the two countries' forced laborers used by Japanese companies.

Japan and South Korea were at odds when Japan recently tried to enlist a series of its Meiji-era industrial sites on the UN world heritage list as Japan is reluctant to admit that a number of South Korean slave laborers were used in the candidate sites.

It is unclear that what will be the Japanese government's comments on the Mitsubishi's move and whether the Mitsubishi move would set an example for other Japanese companies involved in the forced labor issue to give apology to all the victims.

Earlier reports also said that the Mitsubishi Materials will apologize to former British, Dutch and Australian WWII POWs.