History
Tazawako Station is on the JR East Tazawako Line and Akita Shinkansen in Semboku, Akita Prefecture, 40.1 rail kilometres from the lines' terminus at Morioka. It opened on 31 August 1923 as Obonai Station on the Railway Ministry's Obonai Line and was the line's terminus. The station building was destroyed by fire in October 1956 and rebuilt by March 1957. The name was changed to Tazawako on 1 October 1966, and the line's reorganisation later that month made it an intermediate stop. The station became part of JR East on 1 April 1987, and Akita Shinkansen services began on 22 March 1997. The current glass-faced building, designed by Shigeru Ban, opened on 20 March 1997 and won a Good Design Award.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
Architect Shigeru Ban later wrote in an architectural magazine that he was "chagrined" not to have been invited to the opening ceremony of the very station building whose design later won a Good Design Award.