History
Yanaba Station opened on 25 September 1929 when JNR's Ōito-Nansen line was extended north from Shinano-Ōmachi, briefly making it the terminus before further extension to Kamishiro in October 1930. Through-running across the whole route was achieved in 1957 with the unification of the line as the Ōito Line, and electrification from Shinano-Ōmachi reached Shinano-Yotsuya (now Hakuba) in 1959. Freight handling ended in 1963, parcel service in 1984, and the station was destaffed in 1986 before passing to JR East at the 1987 privatisation. The wooden station building was demolished in December 2004 and replaced with a smaller waiting shelter. The station was briefly closed by the Nagano-prefecture Kamishiro Fault earthquake in November 2014.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
Although Yanaba was included in the March 2026 expansion of the Tokyo Suburban Area on the Ōito Line, the only stations in that expanded segment where IC cards such as Suica actually work are Shinano-Ōmachi and Hakuba — Yanaba itself does not accept them.