diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/rules/java/java_stub_template.txt b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/rules/java/java_stub_template.txt
index 2aabedcdf942f2..ead96f3941e116 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/rules/java/java_stub_template.txt
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/rules/java/java_stub_template.txt
@@ -363,8 +363,18 @@ if [ -z "$CLASSPATH_LIMIT" ]; then
 fi
 
 if (("${#CLASSPATH}" > ${CLASSPATH_LIMIT})); then
-  export JACOCO_IS_JAR_WRAPPED=1
-  create_and_run_classpath_jar
+  java_ver=$(JAVABIN --version 2>&1) | head -1
+  if [[ "$java_ver" =~ [^.0-9]1[.][1-8] ]]; then
+    # Arguments file is not supported by Java SDK version 1.8 and earlier, use classpath jar as fallback
+    export JACOCO_IS_JAR_WRAPPED=1
+    create_and_run_classpath_jar
+  else
+    # Using argument file is more robust and efficient than Classpath jar
+    ARGS_FILE="$(mktemp -t XXXXXXXX.args)"
+    echo "-cp "$CLASSPATH >> $ARGS_FILE
+    exec $JAVABIN @$ARGS_FILE "${ARGS[@]}"
+    rm $ARGS_FILE
+  fi
 else
   exec $JAVABIN -classpath $CLASSPATH "${ARGS[@]}"
 fi