Can I mute the shutter sound for Japanese iPhones on iOS 17?

Yes you can. Depends on your circumstances.

I do not quite understand why "apple recommends" such answers as "No you can not turn the sound off". Maybe the moderators aren't actually capable in this discussion's technical issue, but you can turn it off. If you buy japanese iphone and use it outside of Japan with local sim-card the iphone will recognise that you are not in Japan so the shutter sound will work according to global standarts. Today I had just the same issue, bought japanese iphone 15 pro max in Russia, turned it on - shutter sound cannot be turned off. But right after I injected the local sim-card it worked fine, after it checked geolocation.

Obviously if I will travel to Japan the sound will return.

Furthermore I've received info that starting from iPhone 14 and iOs 16 it doesn't matter where you've bought the iPhone but if you visit Japan all phones will make shutter sound based on your location. It matters for me as I travel to Japan often.

So I tried to find some official info, but all I get by now is the "Apple Recommends" marks on the incorrect replys to the simple question. So my hopes to find the right answer to the more complicated one are obviously down after that. Seems it was too hard to put it in minimalistic manner as they usually do in official guidelines, so it was scrapped and we are left with forums.