History
Sakudaira Station opened on 1 October 1997 simultaneously with the Nagano (now Hokuriku) Shinkansen's Takasaki–Nagano section, and is a transfer station between that line and JR East's Koumi Line. Located 164.4 km from Tokyo Station, it sits on flat ground because the surrounding tunnel approaches and vertical-curve geometry made an at-grade Shinkansen platform the most rational design; the previously ground-level Koumi Line was elevated and now crosses diagonally above the Shinkansen platforms. The station was the subject of a long-running naming dispute between Saku and Komoro cities, resolved in November 1996 by then-Nagano Governor Goryo Yoshimura with the compromise name "Sakudaira" (a local term for the Saku Basin).
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
Because the city of Saku is the hometown of the manga author Buronson, in 2019 manhole covers bearing characters from his Fist of the North Star were installed around the station, and in September 2023 a bronze bust of the villain Jagi was unveiled on the concourse to mark the series' 40th anniversary.