History
Hotaka Station opened on 15 July 1915 with the Shinano Railway's Kashiwayamachi–Hotaka extension; the line continued to Arike on 8 August. The Shinano Railway electrified its entire route on 8 January 1926 and was nationalised on 1 June 1937. The present station building, modelled after the nearby Hotaka Shrine, was completed in September 1940. JNR privatisation on 1 April 1987 transferred the station to JR East as part of the Ōito Line. Suica acceptance reached Hotaka on 15 March 2025, adding it to the Tokyo Suburban Area, and on 14 March 2026 the area was extended to Shinano-Ōmachi and Hakuba.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
The station building was designed as a shaden, mimicking the architecture of the nearby Hotaka Shrine after which the station is named.