History
Kōchi-Ekimae is the northern terminus of the Tosaden Kōtsū Ekimae Line, sitting directly in front of JR Shikoku's Kōchi Station. The stop opened on 16 February 1928 when Tosa Electric Railway (土佐電気) extended what was then called the Eguchi Line (now the Ekimae Line) from Harimaya-bashi north to Kōchi-eki — providing the first tram connection between Kōchi's main railway station and the city centre. The stop passed to Tosaden Kōtsū on 1 October 2014 with the operator merger. In 2008 the JR station above was elevated and its concourse rebuilt; today the tram stop sits in a pedestrian plaza directly under the JR viaduct.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-25.
Notes
Kōchi-Ekimae is one of only a handful of Japanese tram stops where passengers can step directly off a streetcar and walk under cover to a Shinkansen-class rail station's ticket gates — JR Shikoku Kōchi Station was elevated and rebuilt in February 2008, becoming the first station in JR Shikoku's network to install automatic ticket gates.