History
Murakami Station opened on 1 November 1914 with the JGR extension of the Murakami Line from Nakajō, in present-day Murakami, Niigata. The northbound section to Nezugaseki entered service on 31 July 1924, and the current station building was rebuilt on 31 May 1964. The full Uetsu Main Line was electrified on 5 August 1972, with the Niitsu-Murakami section using 1,500 V DC and the section north to Akita 20 kV 50 Hz AC — leaving Murakami as the northern terminus of the continuous DC spine from Shimonoseki. Freight handling ended in October 1986, and operation passed to JR East at JNR's breakup on 1 April 1987. Suica acceptance began on 1 April 2014.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
A dead section between Murakami and the next stop Majima marks the northern end of the long DC-electrified spine running all the way from Shimonoseki in Yamaguchi; northbound local services switch to diesel railcars because JR East Niigata Branch has no general-purpose AC/DC dual-voltage stock.