History
Hosono Station opened on 29 September 1915 when the privately-financed Shinano Railway extended its line from Ariake to Ikeda-Matsukawa, today's Shinano-Matsukawa Station. The line was fully electrified on 8 January 1926, and on 1 June 1937 the Shinano Railway was nationalised, with Hosono becoming an unstaffed station. The Ōito Line as a continuous through route opened on 15 August 1957 when the Nakatsuchi–Kotaki section was completed. With the privatisation of Japanese National Railways on 1 April 1987 the station passed to JR East. Hosono is located in Higashi-Kawara, Matsukawa village, Kita-Azumi District, Nagano Prefecture.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
On 14 March 2026 the Ōito Line section including Hosono was added to the Tokyo Suburban Area zone, although Suica IC cards still cannot be used at this particular station — only at Shinano-Ōmachi and Hakuba within the expanded zone.