Since the age of Japanese over 65  was increasing, senior citizens from Japan have been invited to make Malaysia their second home.  “It would be more comfortable to live in Malaysia due to its strategic location, advances in medicine and cheaper cost of living. In Malaysia, we also have Japanese schools, clubs and restaurants and we are more happy to take in more Japanese” said our Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen.

“The cost of living in Malaysia is also a third of that in Japan. Almost everything is duty free except liquor, tobacco and Corningware,” added Dr Ng, who is in Japan to promote the Make Malaysia Your Second Home (MM2H) program.

More than 14,300 foreigners (Australia, Singapore, USA, Britain, Japan, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran,  and India) had made Malaysia their second home since it started the MM2H program in 2002, among those, more than 1,100 were Japanese.

Malaysia was an ideal tourism as well as retirement destination because Malaysia has more than 1,000 islands, 42 marine parks and a 130-million-year-old rain forest.

Among the requirements to apply for MM2H are :

Those who are aged 50 above,  they only need to show that they have liquid assets worth more than RM350,000 and some form of a monthly income, such as a pension. When the application is approved, he or she will have to save at least RM150,000 in a fixed deposit with a bank in Malaysia, of which RM50,000 can be withdrawn from the second year onwards if one wishes to.

Those who are below aged 50 and below, they have to show they have liquid assets worth RM500,000 when applying and a monthly income of RM10,000. When the application is approved, he or she will have to keep RM300,000 in a fixed deposit account in a bank in Malaysia, and will be able to withdraw up to RM150,000 from the second year onwards if he wishes to use the money.

Malaysia was listed by the World Tourism Council as the ninth most visited country.

Source: http://malaysia-holidays-4u.com/2010/09/malaysia-invites-japan-for-mm2h-programme/

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