History
Jōetsu International Skiing Ground Station opened on 27 December 1997 as a JR East seasonal station on the Joetsu Line, serving the adjacent Jōetsu International Ski Resort in Minamiuonuma, Niigata. It initially operated only between December and March for the ski season. On 1 April 2003 it was upgraded to a year-round station. The two elevated side platforms sit on an embankment and have no internal walkway — passengers cross via the road that passes beneath the tracks. Even today some early-morning and late-evening Joetsu Line trains skip the stop, and Hokuetsu Express Hokuhoku Line through-services bypass it entirely outside winter.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
Written out in hiragana, the station's name has 17 characters — "jōetsukokusaisukījōmae" — making it the longest station name in the JR Group network.