History
Saruhashi Station opened on 1 October 1902 as a passenger and freight stop on the Chūō Line in Ōtsuki, Yamanashi Prefecture, 85.3 kilometres from Tokyo Station. The station was originally read “Enkyō,” but the reading of the same kanji was changed to “Saruhashi” on 1 August 1918. Freight services ended on 20 April 1960. With the 1 April 1987 privatisation of Japanese National Railways the station passed to East Japan Railway Company (JR East). The wooden depot was demolished in March 1997 and an overbridge-style station building entered service that December, with a south entrance and free passageway following in April 1998. Suica acceptance began on 18 November 2001, and the staffed ticket window closed on 31 May 2009.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
The station name comes from the nearby Saruhashi, one of Japan’s “three unusual bridges” and a designated National Place of Scenic Beauty; the bridge itself is about 1.2 kilometres east of the station.