History
Ueno-hirokōji Station opened on 1 January 1930 as a Tokyo Underground Railway stop on what is now the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line. The station was not in the original plan — only about 500 m south of Ueno — but was added after the operator learned Mitsukoshi was funding a Mitsukoshi-mae Station; rival department store Matsuzakaya petitioned to have Ueno-hirokōji built. Tokyo Underground Railway transferred the line to the Teito Rapid Transit Authority on 1 September 1941. A roughly 2.13 billion yen renovation tied to the new Toei Ōedo Line connection began in February 1996 and finished in June 2001; joint operations with Ueno-okachimachi and Naka-okachimachi began on 12 December 2000. Tokyo Metro succeeded the TRTA on 1 April 2004.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
Because Ueno-hirokōji was added to the plans only after construction had begun, Matsuzakaya could not secure the lavish concessions Mitsukoshi got at Mitsukoshi-mae; its compromise contract barred the station from being named "Matsuzakaya-mae", from carrying advertising for any other department store, and from being skipped by any future express service.