Ginza Line

The line grew out of the vision of the businessman Noritsugu Hayakawa, who, after observing the London Underground, concluded that Tokyo needed an underground railway of its own. In 1920 he helped found the Tokyo Underground Railway (東京地下鉄道), and construction of the first stretch, between Asakusa and Ueno, began on 27 September 1925. On 30 December 1927 that 2.2-kilometre section opened to the public, the first piece of full-scale subway in Japan; demand was so heavy that passengers sometimes queued far longer than the few minutes the ride itself took.

The Tokyo Underground Railway then pushed steadily south-west through the heart of the city. The line reached a temporary Manseibashi terminus on 1 January 1930, was extended to Kanda on 21 November 1931 (whereupon Manseibashi was abolished), and continued through Mitsukoshimae, Kyōbashi and Ginza before finally reaching its originally intended terminus at Shimbashi on 21 June 1934. By then the subway ran continuously from Asakusa to Shimbashi beneath some of Tokyo's busiest districts.

The western half of today's line was built separately by the Tokyo Rapid Railway (東京高速鉄道), a company tied to a predecessor of the present-day Tokyu Corporation. It opened between Shibuya and the Aoyama area in December 1938 and reached Toranomon, and on 15 January 1939 completed the Toranomon–Shimbashi link that joined the two systems end to end. The Tokyo Underground Railway and the Tokyo Rapid Railway began mutual through-service operation on 16 September 1939, creating a single continuous Shibuya–Asakusa service even though two companies still owned the track.

That division ended with the creation of the Teito Rapid Transit Authority (帝都高速度交通営団), the public corporation usually known as Eidan. The Authority was established on 1 September 1941, and on the same day both private companies transferred their lines to it, bringing the whole 14.3-kilometre Asakusa–Shibuya route under one operator. Through the war years Eidan standardised the fleet, fixing all trains at three-car formations from 31 December 1942, and the line suffered air-raid damage in January 1945, with bomb and flood damage in the central tunnels repaired by that March.

In the post-war decades the line was modernised and given its modern identity. The name 'Ginza Line', taken from the Ginza commercial district it serves, was formally decided on 1 December 1953 — partly to distinguish it from the new Marunouchi Line then being built. Trains were progressively lengthened, reaching six-car formations across the whole line by 1966, and new 01 series cars entered service from 1984. On 31 July 1993 a new automatic train control system and a train-stopping controller (TASC) were introduced, allowing the maximum speed to rise from 55 to 65 km/h from 2 August 1993 and cutting the end-to-end journey time. The line's newest station, Tameike-sannō, opened on 30 September 1997.

Following the privatisation of the Teito Rapid Transit Authority, the line, its stations, rolling stock and related assets were inherited by the newly formed Tokyo Metro Co., Ltd. on 1 April 2004. The Ginza Line's pioneering heritage was subsequently recognised: the Asakusa–Shimbashi section was certified a Selected Civil Engineering Heritage by the Japan Society of Civil Engineers in 2008, and the line was designated part of Japan's Modern Industrial Heritage in 2009.

In 2012 the line received a new generation of trains: the Tokyo Metro 1000 series entered service on 11 April 2012, a fleet of six-car units whose retro styling deliberately evokes the yellow cars that ran on the original 1927 subway. The older 01 series was withdrawn by March 2017. Around the same period the Shibuya terminus was rebuilt, with a new station structure and platform brought into use on 3 January 2020, giving Japan's first subway line a thoroughly modernised western gateway.

• 192527 September: the Tokyo Underground Railway begins construction of the first section, Asakusa–Ueno.
• 192730 December: the Asakusa–Ueno section (2.2 km) opens — Japan's first full-scale subway and the oldest subway line in Asia.
• 19301 January: the line is extended 1.7 km from Ueno to a temporary Manseibashi Station.
• 193121 November: the line reaches Kanda (Manseibashi–Kanda, 0.5 km); the temporary Manseibashi Station is abolished.
• 193421 June: the line reaches its originally planned terminus of Shimbashi (Ginza–Shimbashi, 0.9 km), running continuously from Asakusa.
• 193818 December: the Tokyo Rapid Railway opens its first sections at the Shibuya/Aoyama end, building the western half of the present line.
• 193915 January: the Tokyo Rapid Railway completes the Toranomon–Shimbashi link; on 16 September the two companies begin mutual through-service, creating a continuous Shibuya–Asakusa service.
• 19411 September: the Teito Rapid Transit Authority (Eidan) is established; both private companies transfer their lines to it, uniting the 14.3 km Asakusa–Shibuya route under one operator.
• 194231 December: under Eidan, all trains are standardised to three-car formations during the war years.
• 194527 January: an air raid damages Ginza and Kyōbashi stations and floods central tunnels; full service is restored by 10 March.
• 19531 December: the line is formally named the 'Ginza Line', partly to distinguish it from the new Marunouchi Line.
• 19666 January: all trains on the line run as six-car formations.
• 199331 July: new CS-ATC automatic train control and TASC are introduced; from 2 August the maximum speed rises from 55 to 65 km/h, shortening end-to-end journey time.
• 199730 September: Tameike-sannō, the line's newest station, opens.
• 20041 April: with the privatisation of the Teito Rapid Transit Authority, the line and its assets are inherited by the newly formed Tokyo Metro Co., Ltd.
• 201211 April: the Tokyo Metro 1000 series enters service, six-car units styled to evoke the original 1927 yellow subway cars.
• 20203 January: the rebuilt Shibuya terminus, with a new station structure and platform, is brought into use.