History
Raikōji Station opened on 27 December 1898 when the Hokuetsu Railway extended its line between Hōjō and Nagaoka; it was nationalised in 1907. The stop later became a junction for the narrow-gauge Uonuma Railway (opened 1911, regauged to 1067 mm in 1954, abolished 1984) and the Echigo Kōtsū Nagaoka Line (1921–1995). The current station building was completed in November 1979 and renovated in February 2016. Operations passed to JR East on 1 April 1987 with the privatisation of Japanese National Railways. The mid-window ticket counter (Midori-no-Madoguchi) closed on 28 February 2022, and the station became unstaffed throughout the day on 15 March 2025.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
Raikōji was once the junction of three lines; the narrow-gauge Uonuma Line (1911–1984) and the privately-run Echigo Kōtsū Nagaoka Line (1921–1995) both ended at Raikōji before being abolished.