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これはアメリカ人にも読める日本語の本です。

I received this sentence as an example of に being used with potential form in
a passive sense, but even though the person said they were Japanese (online) I
have never seen anything like this ever.

What is this grammar point? Can I have any other examples? If it is incorrect,
how would you say "Y can be done by X" where it is both potential and passive?
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question
grammar
The に particle and potential form
Usually, when people say "passive" in the context of Japanese, they're
describing verb forms that have the suffix 〜(ら)れる attached. Take a look at the
following examples, taken from the section on passives in Shibatani's _The
Languages of Japan_ , p.318:

> 友達【ともだち】が太郎【たろう】を殴る【なぐる】。 _(non-passive version)_  
>  "The friend **hits** Taro."
>
> 太郎は友達に殴 **られ** た。 _(passive version)_  
>  "Taro **was hit by** a friend."

This form can express a number of things, including _passive_ , _potential_ ,
and less commonly _honorific_ and _spontaneous_ meanings. For details on this
form, please see your textbook; in this answer, I'm going to concentrate on
the form you asked about.

Since your sentence doesn't contain 〜(ら)れる, I would say it's not actually
passive. You could argue otherwise, and you could translate it with the
passive voice in English if you like, but I think it's active in Japanese.

In your sentence, に is expressing who is capable of reading the book. It
changes the statement from a general one to a statement about Americans. (But
since there's a も, it means Americans _as well_ [as Japanese], or _even_
Americans.)

Take a look at the following examples from [Shibatani's 1999 paper on dative
constructions](http://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/9678/SLS1999v29.2-06Shibatani.pdf?sequence=2),
pp.63-64:

> a. 日本語が話せる。  
>  "Japanese can be spoken."
>
> b. ハワイで(は)日本語が話せる。  
>  "In Hawai'i Japanese can be spoken."
>
> c. ケンに(は)日本語が話せる。  
>  "Ken can speak Japanese / Ken can be spoken Japanese to;  
>  (lit) With respect to Ken, it is true that Japanese can be spoken"

Here's what Shibatani write about these examples:

> Consider a Japanese potential expression like [a]. It is not true that
> Japanese can be spoken anywhere or by anyone. This statement thus **needs to
> be confined to a particular domain**. This can be done either by providing a
> location in which Japanese can be spoken, as in [b], or **a person who can
> realize the potential state** , as in [c]. _(emphasis added)_

The statement you're asking about is similar to [c], except that it's been
turned into a relative clause. Here's a non-relative version, with the head
noun phrase 日本語の本 inserted with a が-role:

> アメリカ人にも（日本語の本が）読める  
>  "A Japanese book is readable by { even Americans / Americans, too }"

This noun phrase is pulled out, and it's turned into a relative clause:

> （アメリカ人にも読める）日本語の本  
>  "A Japanese book that { even Americans can read / Americans can read, too
> }"

This makes a single noun phrase which is placed inside the larger sentence
これは〜です, which of course means "This is 〜 (polite)":

> これは（（アメリカ人にも読める）日本語の本）です。  
>  "This is a Japanese book that { even Americans can read / Americans can
> read, too } (polite)"

And with that, we've put your sentence back together.
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answer
The potential form is the potential form, and has no special meaning or
influence in this pattern. As @snailboat mentioned, there is no passive form
anywhere in this example. I think the core of your confusion is the presence
of the `に`. For that, I'll refer you to this other topic: [が and に
interchangeability and difference in
meaning](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/4440/78).

This is a case where `に` is replacing `が` and it seems somewhat unnatural.
However, as I explain in my answer in the above topic, this `に` translates to
something like "unto ～" or "by ～". So the following clauses are essentially
interchangeable:

>   * アメリカ人 **が** 読める日本語の本 → A Japanese book that Americans are able to read
>   * アメリカ人 **に** 読める日本語の本 → A Japanese book that is readable by/unto
> Americans
>

Now, adding the `も` is just adding the emphatic "even ～". In this case, the
`が` version of the clause would replace the `が` with just `も`, but the `に`
version would **add** `も` to get `にも`.

>   * アメリカ人 **も** 読める日本語の本 → A Japanese book that **even** Americans can read
>   * アメリカ人 **にも** 読める日本語の本 → A Japanese book that is readable **even
> by/unto** Americans
>

(Note that with using "even" in the `が` version, I believe you _could_
technically change it to be the double-/compound- particle `もが` ― アメリカ人 **もが**
読める日本語の本 ― but saying it that way seems very literary and/or archaic. Someone
please correct me if I'm wrong on that.)

So I think the root issue here is the `が/に` swap. Hopefully this clears it up
for you.
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