History
Shin-Yōkaichi Station opened on December 29, 1913 as Yōkaichiguchi Station, the terminus of the Konan Railway from Shin-Hachiman (today's Ōmi-Hachiman). It was renamed Shin-Yōkaichi on July 1, 1919, and the current station building was completed in 1922; its second floor served for years as the head office of the Konan Railway and its successor, the Yōkaichi Railway. Through mergers the line passed to Lake Biwa Railway and Steamship in 1927, the Yōkaichi Railway in 1929, and finally Ohmi Railway in 1944. The station - Yōkaichi section opened on January 1, 1946 and was electrified the same year, and the branch line to Misono (the former Hikōjō Station) closed in 1964. From March 1, 2026 the station is unattended throughout the day.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
The 1922 wooden station building, painted in pale green and trimmed in Western style, doubled as the corporate head office of two predecessor railway companies and was largely unknown outside the line until late-20th-century travel writers brought it to wider attention.