History
Ogoto-onsen Station opened on 20 July 1974 as Ogoto Station when the Kosei Line was inaugurated by Japanese National Railways in Ōtsu, Shiga Prefecture. The station passed to JR West at the 1 April 1987 privatisation. After local hot-spring inn operators sought to soften the area's adult-entertainment reputation, the city of Ōtsu funded a renaming campaign supported by a 32,000-signature petition, and the station was rechristened Ogoto-onsen on 15 March 2008. ICOCA contactless ticketing began on 1 November 2003, station numbering (JR-B26) followed in March 2018, and the Midori-no-Madoguchi ticket window closed on 31 January 2020.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
The 2008 renaming, backed by a 32,000-signature petition, was part of a deliberate rebranding by the inn association to shift the area's image; by 2010 the surrounding Ogoto-onsen resort had recorded its highest overnight-guest count since records began in 1989.