History
Azusabashi Station is on JR East's Ōito Line in the city of Azumino in Nagano Prefecture, 5.2 kilometres from the Matsumoto starting point and numbered 38. It opened on 6 January 1915 as a station on the privately built Shinano Railway between Matsumoto-shi (now Kita-Matsumoto) and Toyoshina. The line was nationalised in 1937 and became part of the renamed Ōito Line in 1957. After flood damage in 1965 the bridge over the Azusa River was rebuilt 15 metres upstream and the platform was relocated in August 1967. The station building was rebuilt between August and December 2015, and Suica became usable on 15 March 2025.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
Apple trees planted on the platform around 1971 are still tended by a local volunteer group called the Azusabashi Ringo Club, and a roadside-style sign beside them reads "From here north, Azumino."