Two counterfeit 10,000 yen bills were found Tuesday night inside a ticket machine at a railway station in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, officials of East Japan Railway Co. said Wednesday. Also on Tuesday, 16 counterfeit 10,000 yen bills were discovered in ticket machines at three Seibu Railway Co. stations in Saitama Prefecture, police said.

The two reddish counterfeit bills were discovered when an employee at Hashimoto Station on the JR Yokohama Line opened the vending machine to check the day's earnings at around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, the JR East officials said.

JR has temporarily suspended the acceptance of 10,000 yen bills in all of its 3,600-some ticket-vending machines, and the incident has been reported to Sagamihara police, they said.