History
Ōtaki Station traces its origins to the Ōtaki Signal Stop, established on 1 November 1912 on what became the Ōu Main Line in the town of Mamurogawa, Yamagata. It was promoted to a full passenger station on 20 September 1941 and began freight handling on 20 January 1950. Freight ended on 1 April 1976 and parcels on 1 August the same year, when the station became unstaffed under a simple-agency contract. With the privatisation of JNR on 1 April 1987 it passed to JR East. The contract was discontinued on 1 April 2004, and a new station building was completed on 28 March 2010. On 6 August 1975 a landslip from torrential rain struck the express "Tsugaru 2" while it was stopped at the station, killing one passenger.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
Ōtaki is built in a gorge: the station's two-storey building faces the road at its upper level, with the platform below, so passengers enter on the second floor and descend to the train.