I cannot think of any circumstances where someone would be demanding to see your passport and then accept a photo of your passport instead.
That being said having a photo of your passport and relevant stamps is good advice, but only to make it slightly easier to deal with all the hassel that comes if you do lose your passport.
In most countries you can get what is called a notarized or certified "true copy" of identifying documents (passports being one of them). The intent is for you to submit them with applications so you don't have to submit the original copy. Now how you get a true copy depends on the country. Canadian passports for example can only have true copies made by their embassy or immigrations offices.
Note that this doesn't include your passport stamp pages but Japan hasn't issued passport stamps for several years now and they just look up your passport in a registry instead. So for that purpose, a true copy should be effectively the same thing.
That's where it comes down to what is essentially a technicality but given they carry an embossed seal and signature with the words "TRUE COPY" on them, they look very official and officials are very rarely going to push back on it even if whether they are to be treated as a full substitute for a passport (for identification purposes) is technically a grey area.
I don't think so. My passport is somewhere around the house so I can't just grab it to check but last time I came in they just put it on a scanner and took a photograph of me when I went through immigration.
Disappointing, but inevitable I suppose. Thank you for the ground truth. I’ll try to make Japan an intentional segment during my next international trip to confirm and report back.
> I cannot think of any circumstances where someone would be demanding to see your passport and then accept a photo of your passport instead.
Unless you are involved with a particular interaction, they just want to check your visa status. A passport photo/stamp will do if their system is digitized. Arresting someone (except for the US where the police likes to arrest people) is a major hassle.
That being said having a photo of your passport and relevant stamps is good advice, but only to make it slightly easier to deal with all the hassel that comes if you do lose your passport.