History
Sakurai Station (Meitetsu Nishio Line, station number GN05) opened on 1 July 1926 as Hekikai-Sakurai Station when the Hekikai Electric Railway was inaugurated, in Sakurai-chō-Sakurani-1-chōme, Anjō, Aichi. The Hekikai Electric Railway became part of the Meitetsu Group on 1 May 1944. A second-generation station building was completed on 15 April 1959, and freight service ended in FY1963. Tranpass was introduced on 14 November 2007. The tracks were elevated on 21 June 2008, the platform was extended to six-car length, and the station was renamed Sakurai on 29 June 2008 — so the station carried the name "Hekikai-Sakurai" in its elevated form for just one week. The manaca IC card began on 11 February 2011 and Tranpass ended on 29 February 2012. Mu-Ticket sales from automatic ticket machines were discontinued on 18 March 2023 with the end of premium-car limited-express service on the Nishio Line. The station was fully destaffed on 28 September 2024, and on 11 January 2025 the address was updated following completion of the Anjō-Sakurai-Eki-Shūhen land readjustment from "Sakurai-chō Shinden 19-11" to "Sakurai-chō Sakuranishi 1-chōme 18-7".
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-22.
Notes
The 2008 elevation project for Sakurai cost 8.9 billion yen and ran 2,140 m straddling the station, eliminating four level crossings; it was funded by the national government (1.63 billion), Aichi Prefecture (1.93 billion), Anjō City (4.803 billion) and Meitetsu (537 million). Only the Nishio-side track was double-tracked but the elevated viaduct was built double-track-ready throughout.