History
Harajuku Station opened on 30 October 1906 as an infill station built by the privately owned Nippon Railway, then nationalized just two days later on 1 November 1906 under the Railway Nationalization Act. The opening took place to serve the growing local population between Shibuya and Yoyogi. Ridership increased after the construction of Meiji Shrine in 1919, when the station became the shrine's closest railway access point. The current station building was rebuilt in 1924 following the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, in a distinctive half-timbered British style. With the privatization of Japanese National Railways on 1 April 1987, the station came under JR East control. Platform doors were installed in November 2014 and entered operation that December. In June 2016 JR East announced plans to rebuild the station ahead of the 2020 Olympics; the new station building and a permanent second platform opened on 21 March 2020.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-06-09.
Notes
Hidden to the north of the station is a separate "Imperial Platform" (the Genteiba / Kyutei Home) built in 1925 for the exclusive use of the Imperial family travelling between Tokyo and the imperial villas at Numazu, Hayama, and Nasu. Emperor Taishō used it only once, in August 1926, before his death later that year. It was last used by an emperor on 21 May 2001 when Emperor Akihito returned from the 52nd National Tree-Planting Festival.