The world No 13-ranked Malaysians gave a spirited display to beat the 2018 and 2019 world champions 18-21, 21-15, 21-16 in the Group A match at the Porte De La Chapelle Arena.
Pearly-Thinaah led 11-7 in the opening game but faltered to let the Japanese win 21-18.
Spurred on by the support of the 8,000-strong crowd, Pearly-Thinaah played more aggressively to lead early in the second before romping to a 21-15 win and forcing a rubber game.
Pearly-Thinaah continued to rattle the Japanese pair in the decider with powerful attacks to win 21-16, stretching their head-to-head record to 4-2 in favour of the Malaysians.
In their opening match yesterday, Pearly-Thinaah went down fighting 17-21, 20-22 in 55 minutes to world No 1 duo Chen Qing Chen-Jia Yi Fan of China.
Pearly-Thinaah need to beat Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti of Indonesia in their final group match on Tuesday to qualify for the quarterfinals.
Too eager for points today, says Thinaah
After the match, the Malaysian pair said they hoped to rectify their mistakes when they meet the Indonesian pair on Tuesday.
Thinaah said today’s match “was a great game, we really felt happy. But there’s still room for improvement because we still have one more match, so we want to focus on that and give it our 100 per cent”.
Pearly said they almost paid the price today in their eagerness to score points.
However, they played a more patient game after national coaching director Rexy Mainaky and women’s doubles head coach Hoon Thien How pointed out their flaws.
“The most important factor for our win is we helped each other. Our coaches also kept reminding us to stay patient and calm. We were too eager to kill the shots, which made things worse.
“By being more patient and calm, we really could get points. For our next game, we just want to stay focused for every point and enjoy the match as usual,” she added.
While the Malaysian pair look towards the quarter-finals, Indonesia’s Apriyani-Siti Fadia suffered their second straight defeat, meaning their campaign will end at the group stage.
After losing to Matsumoto-Nagahara in their opening match yesterday, the Indonesians found Qing Chen-Yi Fan too strong today, losing 12-21, 22-24 and allowing the Chinese pair to book their quarterfinal berth.