History
Kawanakajima Station was promoted from the Saigawa Signal Point - opened on 1 May 1911 - to full station status on 20 July 1917 on the Shin'etsu Line. Double-tracking between Shinonoi and Kawanakajima followed in November of the same year. Wagon-load freight was discontinued in January 1984 and parcel handling in March 1985. JNR's 1 April 1987 privatisation transferred it to JR East and JR Freight, although scheduled freight trains ended on 22 March 1997. A rebuilt station building opened on 6 December 1995 underneath the parallel Hokuriku Shinkansen viaduct. Suica was activated alongside the inclusion in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area zone on 15 March 2025.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
A Chichibu Cement private siding once branched from Kawanakajima to a service-station silo to the west, used for cement transport until rail shipments ended; the silos remained in use until the site was cleared for housing in 2008.