I'll be in Shanghai under a business visa for 5 months. During the third month, I would want to travel to Hokkaido, Japan for one week break. I'm a Malaysian and I'll need to obtain a short-term tourist visa to enter Japan.
The validity of a Japan visa is three months, so obtaining the visa before leaving my home country is out of the question. So that leaves me with one option, which is to do it in China, specifically Shanghai.
Now here's the catch: I'll only be able to get my ticket after 90 days in China (it is paid for by the company), but I'll be traveling in 7 days time. So, is it possible to not have a confirmed ticket/booking and still get a advance visa?