diff --git a/java/BUILD.bazel b/java/BUILD.bazel
index 9baaa3f27..50888d48c 100644
--- a/java/BUILD.bazel
+++ b/java/BUILD.bazel
@@ -97,6 +97,7 @@ define_java_module(
     deps = [
         ":org_ray_ray_api",
         ":org_ray_ray_runtime",
+        "@maven//:com_google_code_gson_gson",
         "@maven//:com_google_guava_guava",
         "@maven//:com_sun_xml_bind_jaxb_core",
         "@maven//:com_sun_xml_bind_jaxb_impl",
diff --git a/java/dependencies.bzl b/java/dependencies.bzl
index 1f73b9b48..791b24b12 100644
--- a/java/dependencies.bzl
+++ b/java/dependencies.bzl
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ def gen_java_deps():
     maven_install(
         artifacts = [
             "com.beust:jcommander:1.72",
+            "com.google.code.gson:gson:2.8.5",
             "com.google.guava:guava:27.0.1-jre",
             "com.google.protobuf:protobuf-java:3.8.0",
             "com.puppycrawl.tools:checkstyle:8.15",
diff --git a/java/test/pom.xml b/java/test/pom.xml
index 3dfbbbae8..48075ba8c 100644
--- a/java/test/pom.xml
+++ b/java/test/pom.xml
@@ -27,6 +27,11 @@
       <artifactId>ray-runtime</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
     </dependency>
+<dependency>
+  <groupId>com.google.code.gson</groupId>
+  <artifactId>gson</artifactId>
+  <version>2.8.5</version>
+</dependency>
 <dependency>
   <groupId>com.google.guava</groupId>
   <artifactId>guava</artifactId>
diff --git a/java/test/src/main/java/org/ray/api/test/BaseMultiLanguageTest.java b/java/test/src/main/java/org/ray/api/test/BaseMultiLanguageTest.java
index 379005562..40c5cd5ab 100644
--- a/java/test/src/main/java/org/ray/api/test/BaseMultiLanguageTest.java
+++ b/java/test/src/main/java/org/ray/api/test/BaseMultiLanguageTest.java
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ package org.ray.api.test;
 import com.google.common.base.Strings;
 import com.google.common.collect.ImmutableList;
 import com.google.common.collect.ImmutableMap;
+import com.google.gson.Gson;
 import java.io.File;
 import java.lang.ProcessBuilder.Redirect;
 import java.util.List;
@@ -77,8 +78,7 @@ public abstract class BaseMultiLanguageTest {
     String classpath = Stream.of(System.getProperty("java.class.path").split(":"))
         .filter(s -> !s.contains(" ") && s.contains("test"))
         .collect(Collectors.joining(":"));
-    String workerOptions =
-        " -classpath " + classpath;
+    String workerOptions = new Gson().toJson(ImmutableList.of("-classpath", classpath));
     // Start ray cluster.
     List<String> startCommand = ImmutableList.of(
         "ray",
diff --git a/java/test/src/main/resources/test_cross_language_invocation.py b/java/test/src/main/resources/test_cross_language_invocation.py
index 266016fbe..53f38e86a 100644
--- a/java/test/src/main/resources/test_cross_language_invocation.py
+++ b/java/test/src/main/resources/test_cross_language_invocation.py
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ def py_func_pass_python_actor_handle():
     counter = Counter.remote(2)
     f = ray.java_function("org.ray.api.test.CrossLanguageInvocationTest",
                           "callPythonActorHandle")
-    r = f.remote(counter._serialization_helper())
+    r = f.remote(counter._serialization_helper()[0])
     return ray.get(r)
 
 
diff --git a/python/ray/services.py b/python/ray/services.py
index 629a3feac..a03ea4baa 100644
--- a/python/ray/services.py
+++ b/python/ray/services.py
@@ -1247,7 +1247,8 @@ def start_raylet(redis_address,
     if include_java is True:
         default_cp = os.pathsep.join(DEFAULT_JAVA_WORKER_CLASSPATH)
         java_worker_command = build_java_worker_command(
-            java_worker_options or ["-classpath", default_cp],
+            json.loads(java_worker_options)
+            if java_worker_options else ["-classpath", default_cp],
             redis_address,
             node_manager_port,
             plasma_store_name,