JP original PS1 game in PAL PS2 modded

[SurfDrifter]

I bought from Japan original "Kula Quest" (known as Roll Away in US and Kula World in PAL).

The game plays fine on both my PSX and PS2, but in PS2 i cannot save my progress on the MC. I tried with a PSX 1MB card and a PS2 8MB, but it looks like it doesn't find any MC (i don't know japanese to translate the exact message)

On the other hand, when i boot on PSX and play, the save function works great.

Both my machines are PAL. PS2 is v.9 with messiah2 v.1.33b

Is this common?