History
Hijiri-Kōgen Station opened on 1 November 1900 as Omi Station on the new Shinonoi–Nishijō section of the Shinonoi Line. It was renamed Hijiri-Kōgen on 1 April 1976; the village council adopted the change because the original name was hard to read and to promote tourism on the nearby Hijiri plateau, though the adjacent Nagano Expressway interchange retains the Omi name. Freight handling ended on 31 October 1982 and parcel handling on 1 February 1984. The station passed to JR East at the 1987 JNR privatisation, the Midori no Madoguchi closed on 30 March 2022 and the station became simple-commission on 1 April. Station numbering SN11 was assigned in February 2025 and Suica began on 15 March 2025.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
Although the station was renamed for the Hijiri-Kōgen tourism area, the actual plateau lies about 5 km into the mountains east of the platform — and the adjacent Nagano Expressway interchange still uses the original "Omi" name.