About 300 suspicious incidents have been reported in the area served by East Japan Railway Co. since March, including damage to facilities and objects found on tracks, the company said.
Though it is uncertain if the cases are linked, some of them are thought to be malicious in nature and could have led to serious accidents. JR East, which has filed reports of damage to the police and installed additional security cameras, feels a sense of danger about the situation.
According to the company, the suspicious cases began coming to light in February, and it started compiling data on the incidents in March. About 50 cases were reported in March, but the number surged to 150 in April, with another 100 or more reported by the middle of May.
On the night of April 12 at Koriyama Station in Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture, a parked train started moving without an onboard driver and struck a diesel locomotive parked about 500 meters away in the station yard. A wheel stopper that prevents the train from moving was found to have detached.
Later on April 25, a cleaning worker discovered the remains of burnt toilet paper in the restroom of a train of the Uchibo Line.
In a third incident on the night of May 12, an outbound local train between Akabane and Urawa stations on the Utsunomiya Line in Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture, collided with a bicycle that had been left on the tracks. Operations for that and other lines were suspended for about three hours, leading to the cancellation of 53 trains.
JR East reported the three cases and others to local police on suspicion that such crimes constitutes forcible obstruction of business and property destruction. There have also been incidents in which plywood and construction poles have been found on tracks, as well as the theft of a departure bell from a station.
Most of the incidents occurred in areas accessible to the general public. From April to May, however, there were about 50 in which doors were dented and appeared to have been struck from within train crew rooms, which are generally accessible only to staff. The incidents targeted the JR Tokaido and other lines in the Tokyo metropolitan area.
Along with reporting the cases to police, JR East is installing additional security cameras and deploying more security guards. "It's possible that our greater vigilance has resulted in more incident reports," a company official said. "We want to strengthen our security and take all possible measures so passengers can safely use [our facilities]."
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