When traveling to Japan, I did not have the slightest problem with lost baggage, either at airports, or with the Japanese services that allow you to send your baggage from one hotel to another, to be able to travel more lightly.
However, at the airport, when flying back home I had an unexpected experience. At my final destination, when I retrieved my checked baggage in the airport, it no longer had the padlock that it had at check in, in Japan.
I assume that this happened because at the airport, after check in, they have cut the padlock, to inspect the baggage. I also assume that the inspection was caused by a big kitchen knife that was in the baggage. The kitchen knife had been bought from a shop from Osaka, and it was well sealed inside the original package closed by the shop, but this would not be seen at an X-ray machine.
There was nothing else in the baggage that could be suspicious. In any case, if they inspected the baggage to check the knife, it was done carefully, and the content of the baggage was in the exact same positions as after packing.
This is reminding me of the story of a Japanese airport doing a full security sweep because one of the airport restaurants had misplaced a kitchen knife.
Why would a knife be a problem in a checked bag, even if it hadn't been sealed in the original package?
I've asked TSA people similar questions when they checked my bag. He said that the item was blocking view of what was underneath it.
I'd guess it's not the packaging, but a big piece of steel blocking the xray view.
The x-ray machine aren't 360?
If 360, I wonder does the operator perhaps not trust it?
probably different fidelity of scanner, I'd guess. This was in 2018-2019