History
Urawa Station opened on 28 July 1883 as part of Nippon Railway's pioneering Ueno-to-Kumagaya route — one of just six original stops on what is today's Tōhoku Main Line and Takasaki Line. It is the oldest station in present-day Saitama City, predating Ōmiya. The line was nationalised in 1906 and incorporated into the Tōhoku Main Line in 1909. A second station building opened in 1929, and an east entrance was added in 1930. Successive widenings to six and then eight tracks created today's three elevated island platforms by 2013, which allowed the Shōnan-Shinjuku Line to call here from 16 March 2013. Privatisation transferred it to JR East on 1 April 1987.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
Despite Saitama Prefecture's railway nucleus being at Ōmiya, Urawa remains the prefecture and city's nominal representative station in timetables because the prefectural and city governments cluster around it.