Asia Honours Excellence in Passport and ID Design

The annual Regional Banknote and ID Document of the Year Awards (2 December 2025), a highlight of the High Security Printing™ (HSP) Asia conference, took place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, bringing together issuing authorities, security printers and solution providers from across the region to acknowledge excellence in the industry.

This year’s ID Document Awards recognised two outstanding projects: Japan’s new 2025 passport, and Malaysia’s upgraded Malaysia Pass (MAL Pass) label.

Best New Passport

Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), in partnership with the National Printing Bureau (NPB), received the Best New Passport award for its 2025 passport series.

Production of the passport began in March 2025, marking Japan’s transition from a paper-based to polycarbonate datapage. The passport adopts a multi-layer datapage on which the holder’s photograph and biographical data are laser-ngraved, significantly increasing resistance to counterfeiting and alteration compared to the previous paper substrate. Personalisation, previously carried out at prefectural passport offices, has been centralised in two NPB facilities, improving process control and security.