History
Gotemba Station opened on 1 February 1889 as one of the original stops on the Tōkaidō Main Line between Kōzu and Shizuoka. At 455 metres it sits at the highest point on what is today the Gotemba Line, and in steam days served as a banking-locomotive base for trains crossing the Hakone foothills. When the Tanna Tunnel opened on 1 December 1934 the Tōkaidō was rerouted via Atami and the original alignment was renamed the Gotemba Line at the town's request. From 1955 Odakyu's joint operation with JNR introduced the express that became today's 'Fuji', and at the 1987 JNR break-up the station passed to JR Central, with freight handling formally ended in April 2006.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
On the morning of opening day in 1889 a fire destroyed roughly 1,000 buildings in the town centre, forcing the planned grand inauguration to be cut down to a quiet ceremony.