Graffiti artist makes mark on Yokohama trains

YOKOHAMA -- A train carriage at a railway depot here was found covered with graffiti Thursday morning, its operator said.

The finding forced East Japan Railway Co. (JR East) to suspend the operations of the train to remove the graffiti and reported the incident to police. Local authorities are searching for the culprit on suspicion of damaging property.

At around 5 a.m., a railway worker found graffiti covering one side of Car No. 9 of a 10-carriage train at an Isogo Station depot in Isogo-ku, Yokohama, JR East officials said. The graffiti measured about 1.5 meters high and some 20 meters long.

The incident forced the cancellation of a Keihin-Tohoku Line train bound for Kamata from Sakuragicho, inconveniencing about 2,400 passengers.

The incident came only a day after graffiti was found on two train carriages at Kanazawa-Bunko Station of the Keihin Express Electric Railway in Yokohama's Kanazawa-ku. (Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, July 3, 2003)