Domestic flights worry

Hey everyone. I'm going to be flying from Fukuoka to Sapporo next month for the snow festival. Of course, I know it's a domestic flight, so I don't need to get a re-entry permit. However, I read some stories that people travelled on domestic flights and had their ARC's taken away, which has me a little worried, so I just want to check some facts.

Being a domestic flight, do you even have to go through immigration/customs etc? If you do, do you still join the queue for foreigners? Do I even need to take my passport or is my ARC alone ok? Or is just a copy of my passport ok? Any advice from people who have flown domestically would be much appreciated.

However, I read some stories that people travelled on domestic flights and had their ARC's taken away

No, unless you are a criminal who gets arrested or a victim of a crime, your ARC will not taken away from you on domestic flights.

Being a domestic flight, do you even have to go through immigration/customs etc?

No! Only the usual security check. Your identity is not checked even once.

Do I even need to take my passport or is my ARC alone ok?

Passport is not required! Your ARC is sufficient. It will not be checked at any time.

Rob, just out of interest, on what grounds have you heard that people have had their ARCs taken away? Why would this happen?

As above, when on a domestic flight you do not cross international borders, so there is no reason for there to be an Immigration/customs check. This goes for any country, although some countries may have internal checks for security purposes. Japan is not one of those countries.

Flying domestically is not much different to travelling by train, apart from a check for weapons etc, which I think is quite reasonable.

Sira, my grounding was based on this article in Time magazine: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,906087,00.h...

Thank you for your replies, I am sure everything will be fine, just... the above article.

That's talking about an unfortunate case where the traveler went out on an international flight from Tokyo (that's why his passport was involved - still I don't understand why he gave up his ARC, though), and by the time of his return to Tokyo, the destination has been converted from US to Japan so that his flight was then considered a domestic one. An extraordinary case only. So not to worry about any current domestic flights at all.

Rob, when you read that article, dated from 1972, didn't you think that things HAVE changed since? both in Japan and other countries??

1972! I didn't notice that at all... Ok, I feel sufficiently safe now. Thanks all for your advice!

Also if something like that is in Time magazine, chances are it's not an everyday occurrence in any case.