So, both those vowels are very similar, the only difference being that [a] is
made when the mouth is fully open while [ɐ] is near-open.

Both those sounds exist in my language (Brazilian Portuguese), so I'm a little
confused because while normally I would hear [a], I feel like sometimes I also
hear [ɐ].

I believe it happens only with some specific people that may speak with their
mouths less open than the average, but I might be wrong.

Does anyone have any input on this? Or maybe studies or papers that explore
this matter? I've found some stuff about the Korean language, but not for
Japanese.
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question
pronunciation phonetics vowels
Is the japanese あ ever [ɐ] instead of [a]?
I am not personally aware of a study specifically on these vowels, but I think
you have encountered a situation similar to
[this](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/54535/5010) and
[this](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/68584/5010). [a] and [ɐ] are
_allophones_ of the same _phoneme_ in Japanese. This means that even if you
hear two different a's, ordinary Japanese speakers are completely unaware of
it and can't even tell the difference. Japanese has only five basic vowels (あ,
い, う, え, and お), and Japanese people recognize vowels as only one of those
five. Although some Japanese vowels may sound to you slightly different from
person to person or from word to word, you should not worry about it.

(This also happens in the opposite direction. "Get away" in English sounds to
Japanese ears sometimes like ゲタウェイ, sometimes like ゲダウェイ, and sometimes even
like ゲラウェイ. It was confusing to me at first.)
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answer