diff --git a/java/rocksjni/rocksjni.cc b/java/rocksjni/rocksjni.cc
index 4595f3f357..1f2941f424 100644
--- a/java/rocksjni/rocksjni.cc
+++ b/java/rocksjni/rocksjni.cc
@@ -29,6 +29,10 @@ void Java_org_rocksdb_RocksDB_open(
     JNIEnv* env, jobject jdb, jlong jopt_handle,
     jlong jcache_size, jstring jdb_path) {
   auto opt = reinterpret_cast<rocksdb::Options*>(jopt_handle);
+  // TODO(yhchiang): should be removed once Java binding for Env is ready.
+  if (opt->max_background_compactions > 1) {
+    opt->env->SetBackgroundThreads(opt->max_background_compactions);
+  }
   if (jcache_size > 0) {
     opt->no_block_cache = false;
     opt->block_cache = rocksdb::NewLRUCache(jcache_size);