History
Kita-Hosono Station opened on 28 October 1930 as Okame-mae Station (おかめ前駅), a passenger-only stop of the private Shinano Railway in the village of Matsukawa. With the nationalisation of Shinano Railway on 1 June 1937 the station was renamed Kita-Hosono. The Nakatsuchi–Kotaki section opened on 15 August 1957, completing the line and turning it into the Ōito Line. JNR privatisation on 1 April 1987 transferred operations to JR East. The station was incorporated into the Tokyo Metropolitan Area on 14 March 2026.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-22.
Notes
The station name Okame-mae came from a nearby Uzume-jinja shrine, which is locally venerated as "Okame-sama" — its colloquial name was simply applied to the new stop.