History
Nagano Station opened on 1888-05-01 with the state-built line from Sekiyama, and on 1888-08-15 the extension to Ueda turned it into an intermediate stop. The 1909 route-name decree placed it on the Shin'etsu Line (later Shin'etsu Main Line), and on 1936-03-10 the famous temple-style station building was completed. On 1996-06-22 the temple-style building was replaced by a modern elevated structure. On 1997-10-01, with the opening of the Hokuriku Shinkansen from Takasaki to Nagano, the parallel conventional line south of Nagano was transferred to the third-sector Shinano Railway, and on 2015-03-14, when the Shinkansen reached Kanazawa, the northern Hokushinano Line was likewise transferred. From 2025-03-15, Suica IC service became available on the Shin'etsu Main Line and Nagano was added to the Tokyo metropolitan area.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
Nagano Station's 1936 temple-style station building lost its copper-plated roof to metal requisitioning in November 1940, and the bronze Nyoze-hime statue was likewise melted down in February 1944, leaving only the pedestal until the statue was recast in October 1948.