History
Nirasaki Station opened on 15 December 1903 as a Railway Board stop with the inauguration of the Chūō Main Line between Kōfu and Nirasaki, handling both passengers and freight. The line was extended to Fujimi a year later, on 21 December 1904. An Imperial special carrying Emperor Shōwa on his post-war provincial tour called here on 14 October 1947. The station was transferred to Japanese National Railways on 1 June 1949. On 16 September 1970 the line was double-tracked and the platforms were moved onto the new alignment, eliminating the switchback once used to cope with the steep gradient. Freight handling ended on 1 February 1972 and parcel handling on 14 March 1985. JR East took over at the 1 April 1987 privatisation, and Suica IC cards were accepted from 16 October 2004 when Nirasaki was folded into the Tokyo metropolitan fare zone.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
Until the 1970 line-doubling moved the platforms onto the main alignment, Nirasaki used a switchback configuration to handle the steep grades of the Chūō Main Line; the upbound platform now measures 322 m, the longest of any station in JR East's Hachiōji branch territory.