Two Japan Railway group companies lifted a 10-day ban Wednesday on the use of garbage cans and coin lockers at about 500 stations in the Tokyo area, railway officials said. East Japan Railway Co. and Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) imposed the ban Dec. 27 following two explosions at their facilities at the end of last year. The carriers have removed covers from garbage cans and reactivated coin-operated lockers now that the holiday season has ended. On Dec. 27, a man was injured when an explosive device planted in a coin-operated locker went off at JR East's Urawa Station in Saitama Prefecture. Three days earlier, a garbage bag from a bullet train that arrived at Shin-Osaka Station exploded at a JR Tokai yard in Settsu, Osaka Prefecture.
