automatic.

Unfortunately you have to reverify and "add" them again. You just don't have to "type" out the CC number but I believe you have to type the CVV and reverify

Did you informed tiger about your travel itinerary and turn on overseas usage (debit card)?
just used in sg early this month it works

Hey SkyHermit, I came across an article by Ata Distance (@Kanjo on Twitter) a couple months back on the mobile payment landscape in Japan which may be related to your situation (Google: "site:atadistance.net "Don’t say Apple Pay: what to say at checkout in Japan with Apple Pay"" and "site:atadistance.net "Apple Pay Japan Card Guide"").

The gist is that there's several key differences between contactless payment in Japan and elsewhere. Some of the key points mentioned in the articles are (I am paraphrasing them):
1. Japan uses FeliCa standard (NFC-F) predominantly for NFC where else EMV Contactless (Visa / Mastercard) uses NFC-A or NFC-B. The article states that Japan-issued Visa and Mastercard typically has a FeliCa network partner (e.g. iD and QUICPay).

2. Use the term "Credit" or "Touch" when you want to use overseas EMV-based cards (which is literally most of the world, Malaysia included).

3. The EMV Contactless logo do not mean that the store supports EMV Contactless payments, rather rely on the acceptance marks for Visa / Mastercard contactless [see attached photo].

Hope these helps!

Just throwing my two cents here real quick, for me, I've tried to use AP in Singapore at Shaw Theatres but it failed outright, it wasn't like yours not giving response at all, rather it would appear on my AP history saying that it's rejected, usually if it's fine it should be accepted on tap. I'm fairly certain it's because some issues with my card that I don't know about that's making it reject overseas payment(I've activated almost everything in my M2U app and web, yet it's the same, and also it has rejected my physical card). For Japan with how their system works, it probably is because of either a configuration issue or just the terminal plain outdated. Or maybe it's not designed to work with foreign cards, that's what I think might have happened if your AP is just not responding vs outright rejected. 

Edit: My card is Maybank Visa Platinum Debit.

So far I have used the following without any issues:
MY Cards in AU
UK Cards in MY & EU

I believe so long the merchant's terminal supports EMV Visa and Mastercard network, things should go fine.

Some countries that I imagine could be a bit more challenging in terms of general EMV Visa / Mastercard acceptance would be:
1. China (mostly UnionPay, and most of the consumers prefer QR > Card Payments)
2. Russia (due to current sanctions)
3. Japan (on the contactless side, due to the differences in NFC technology used by FeliCa and EMV)
4. Some EU countries (Netherlands where some merchants would only accept Maestro, which is mainly issued in EU only, but I remember reading that there's a timeline to migrate them over to accept Mastercard Debit)

The above are purely based on my understanding and I don't work anywhere near the payments industry

Surprisingly I manage to add Maybank cards to iOS 18 wallet app.
Previously back and forth with Maybank CS and still unable to add card to the point I gave up.