History
Otabayashi Station opened on 1 April 1955 on the Mito Line, serving the western edge of what is today the city of Yūki in Ibaraki Prefecture. From the outset it was a diesel-railcar passenger halt without permanent staff. The station was absorbed into the JR East network on 1 April 1987 at the privatisation of Japanese National Railways. Suica IC-card service began on 18 November 2001, and platform-extension and waiting-room refurbishment works finished in March 2005, bringing capacity up to five-car trains. From the 15 March 2014 timetable revision all local services began calling at Otabayashi; until the day before, a small number of early-morning and late-night trains had passed through.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
The station name is read "Otabayashi," but the place name written with the same characters in Yūki is read "Odabayashi." Otabayashi is also the westernmost station on the Mito Line, sitting just east of a prefectural border and a DC/AC dead section.