The Maebashi District Court dismissed a ¥460 million damages claim Wednesday by 46 Chinese who demanded that the government and construction companies compensate them for wartime forced labor... The presiding judge...admitted that the plaintiffs were forced to work for the companies but said individuals' rights to seek wartime compensation were abolished by the 1972 Japan-China Joint Communique. The judge also said the government and lawmakers should provide relief measures... The plaintiffs initially sued Kajima Corp. and Hazama Corp. separately from the state... The legal procedure involving Hazama has been taken over by Aoyama Kanzaki Corp., which was spun off from Hazama... The two companies denied their involvement in projects that brought Chinese laborers to Japan during the war.