Originally Posted by
MichaelJapan
In my almost eight years of living in Japan I have never heard of anybody coming here having to show their passport on trains or at ticket gates. The only time passports were checked was when vouchers were exchanged for the pass.
I am not saying this check cannot happen (more likely at station gates), but I am sharing my experience of having 100+ people coming and using them (family and for our company alike) over here.
I’ve mentioned on this forum before that I have had my passport checked when travelling with a JR pass.
I may not be a “real” person to you but quite a few of the forum regulars have met me.
I only ever bought a JR pass for myself once (usually I get the JR East kind) and it was in 2006, but between Nagoya and Osaka whilst travelling on a non-Shinkansen train I was required to show my passport.
Even in that situation, I doubt an incorrect spelling would have caused a big problem. I suspect they wanted to check that I had a temporary visa, particularly as I was travelling with somebody not entitled to a JR Pass.
Most officious ticket checker I have come across elsewhere was at the manned JR interchange gate at Ichigaya (or possibly Iidabashi but definitely one of the two). An inspector there really scrutinised my JR East Pass and asked for my passport too. I think that had to do with how it got stamped up in Shiogama and Fugushima. That was about 4 years ago.
From my small and personally acquired data set, my impression is that passport inspection is more likely to happen if you are outside of the standard tourism loop, i.e. if your route and/or companion flags as being in any way unusual/uncommon. Any irregularities with a stamp (like with the JR East Pass) may also invite scrutiny.