The government plans to stop its discriminatory treatment of foreigners who refused to be fingerprinted for residency registration when it ends fingerprinting for all aliens next month, Justice Ministry officials said.

The refusal of some foreign residents to be fingerprinted has forced them to stay in Japan without legal status, while others had been barred from re-entering the country.

The justice minister plans to use the occasion to give special residence permits to several foreigners who in the 1980s refused to be fingerprinted and have since stayed in Japan without proper visas, the officials said Wednesday.