History
Mitaka Station opened on 25 June 1930 as a Ministry of Railways stop on the Chūō Main Line, having begun as the Mitaka temporary signal box on 26 January 1929. The Musashino exit (today’s north exit) was added in 1941, and on 15 July 1949 an unmanned, set-down train careered into the station and killed six people — an incident still officially unsolved. The station became JR East’s on 1 April 1987, with Suica IC service from 18 November 2001 and a melody adapted from “Medaka no Gakkō” introduced on 26 June 2010. Three island platforms serve six tracks under a perpendicular concourse, hosting Chūō-Sōbu locals, Chūō Line rapid, and some Tōzai Line through services.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
The "Mitaka Incident" of 15 July 1949 — in which a driverless seven-car train rolled into the station at speed, derailed, and killed six bystanders — remains officially unsolved and was one of three controversial 1949 JNR incidents that shaped postwar rail-labour politics.