1) To say that Java "passes all arguments by value" implies astonishing behavior if one passes an object and calls a mutator on that object changes it everywhere else that reference is used. If it were truly passed by value, the target would get a _copy_ of the original. Which is NOT the case in Java. So this terminology is misleading!
2) An admittedly weaker argument you imply that a given Java developer has never looked at any other language that doesn't use Java's approach to parameter passing. That's a tiny, tiny audience, my friend.
Foo x = new Foo();
x.setBar(42);
Foo y = x;
y.setBar(0);
assert(x.getBar() == 42); // fails! astonishing behaviour!
To understand this, you need to know that Java objects are reference types. And this has nothing to do with parameter passing.
And once you understand reference type semantics, you don't need anything extra to understand parameter passing, because parameter passing in Java uses the same semantics as assignment: that is, the value of the actual parameter is copied into the formal parameter, just like values on the right of an assignment are copied into the locations on the left. It's pass by copy.
Note that it you change the pointer (object reference) directly, instead of following it and mutating the pointed-to object, the caller would NOT see the change. Like "x = new Foo()" inside a routine would not change what was passed in at all.
But if Java was pass by reference, then things would act differently.
Please learn Java. It's not about not knowing other languages. It's about not knowing Java. This is all in the JLS.
A C++ pointer is a simple thing: an address within the program's address space. In an earlier response to a similar claim of yours, RayleyField pointed out that "In HotSpot references are double pointers (useful for moving GC), but in general it's up to JVM implementation." Certainly, if you dig into a Java reference, you will find an address that is analogous to a C++ pointer, but the same can be said of a C++ reference. Java references are not exactly equivalent to either C++ references or C++ pointers, and the statement that Java passes by value is not dependent on an arguable claim that Java references are more like C++ pointers than C++ references. This line of argument has just added to the confusion in these threads.
Logically, a C++ pointer and a Java object reference are nearly identical, as described and defined by their respective language standards. Independent of the implementation chosen.
This is not the same as a C++ reference, which is logically an alias (and may be implemented via pointers, but that's irrelevant).
The confusion in this thread stems from people confusing many things, indeed.
Same with "Java object reference" and "Java pointer" (synonyms).
If we can't discuss this topic using those well-defined things, what can we use?
I am told you will find all the things you need well-defined in the JLE, and in doing so you will avoid positing a plurality without necessity, as Billy Ockham may or may not have put it.
But if people in this thread could read and understand the JLS, this thread wouldn't exist. Since it does, some of us feel like we should contribute and correct the false statements we see.
If you don't know Java, and need an explanation, then you need one based on terminology that exists outside Java. Pass by value and pass by reference are concepts that predate and exist outside of Java, describing programming language semantics in a way where statements about different languages can be compared and contrasted, because they're not phrased in vocabulary specific to the language the statement is about.
Java passes all arguments by value.
The idea of overloading the term 'reference' to mean 'pointer', but without all the power you get from pointers in languages like C, has at this point grown far beyond Java. I don't think it's a logical muddying of the waters to use it in a phrase like "references are passed by value" when describing Java using terminology that exists outside of Java.