History
Shinonoi Station opened as a station of the Government-operated Shin'etsu Line on 15 August 1888, with revenue service starting on 15 September the same year. The Chūō Line (later renamed the Shinonoi Line) reached the station from Nishijō on 1 November 1900. A second-generation station building was completed in January 1927 and a third-generation building in April 1982. With the privatisation of JNR on 1 April 1987 the station passed to JR East. Following the partial opening of the Hokuriku Shinkansen on 1 October 1997, the Karuizawa–Shinonoi section of the Shin'etsu Main Line was hived off to Shinano Railway, and the station became a joint JR East / Shinano Railway facility from that date. A fourth-generation overhead station building and east-west pedestrian concourse opened on 14 September 1995. From 15 March 2025 Suica became usable at the JR side; Shinano Railway followed on 14 March 2026.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-22.
Notes
Between March 1990 and July 1991 the station's departure jingle was a brass fanfare, prompted by the then-stationmaster's idea — initially inspired by the nearby Chausuyama Dinosaur Park — that morphed into an Olympic-style fanfare while Nagano was bidding to host the 1998 Winter Games. Each of the three platforms had its own piece (No. 1 performed by the Nagano City Fire Brigade, Nos. 2 and 3 by the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force), but the fanfare proved deeply unpopular with regular commuters and was discontinued once the Nagano Olympics bid succeeded on 15 June 1991.