Citizens of 71 countries, including Malaysia, now enjoy entry to Japan for vacation without having to register for any visa for short-term visits of 19-30 days to the country.
However, this visa exemption system appears to have been abused, and it was reported that in 2016 alone, 28,000 of the visitors caught extending their visit illegally were citizens of countries that have this visa exemption, including Malaysia.
To deal with this problem, the Japanese government will introduce a pre-review system for visitors from visa-exempt countries called JESTA or Japan Electronic System for Travel Authorization, similar to ESTA used by the United States government.
Before flying to Japan, visitors will need to go to the JESTA website to answer some questions such as the duration of their visit to the country, and where they will be staying during their stay in Japan. This process will be scrutinized by Japanese immigration, and then visitors will be told whether they are allowed to enter or not.
If the application through JESTA does not go through, Japan Today reports that they can still apply for a visa to visit Japan through the Japanese embassy in their countries.
Even so, this JESTA system will also reportedly only be operational around 2030, and the development of this system will only start around this year. The country of Japan has listed 71 countries that are exempt from visa requirements that will be included in this program, and as said before, Malaysia is one of them.