Shin-Ōkubo Station

Shin-Ōkubo Station (新大久保駅, Shin-Ōkubo-eki) is a railway station on the Yamanote Line in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan, operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East).[1] Opened on November 15, 1914, it is close to the large local Korean ethnic neighborhood. Shin-Ōkubo Station has only one exit.

JY16
Shin-Ōkubo Station

新大久保駅
Shin-Ōkubo Station exterior in June 2020
Location1 Hyakunin-chō, Shinjuku, Tokyo
Japan
Operated by JR East
Line(s)JY Yamanote Line
History
Opened1914
Passengers
FY201142,433 daily
Location
Shin-Ōkubo Station
Location within Special wards of Tokyo
Shin-Ōkubo Station
Shin-Ōkubo Station (Tokyo)
Shin-Ōkubo Station
Shin-Ōkubo Station (Japan)

Lines

Shin-Ōkubo Station is served by the circular Yamanote Line, with trains running every four minutes during the daytime off-peak. It is one of only two stations on the Yamanote Line that does not provide a direct connection to any other line, the other being Mejiro Station.

Station layout
The station platform, October 2014

The elevated station consists of a single island platform serving two tracks. The Yamanote Freight Line tracks used by Saikyō Line and Shōnan-Shinjuku Line services lie to the east of the Yamanote Line tracks.

Platform edge doors were installed on the Yamanote Line platforms in 2013.[2]

Platforms
1 JY Yamanote Line Clockwise for Ikebukuro, Tabata, and Ueno
2 JY Yamanote Line Anti-clockwise for Shinjuku, Shibuya, and Shinagawa

Adjacent stations
←Service→
Yamanote Line JY16
Shinjuku
SJKJY17
 - Takadanobaba JY15

Surrounding area

Less than a kilometer north of the sprawling Shinjuku Station, Shin-Ōkubo Station is located approximately 5 minutes' walk from Shinjuku's Kabukichō district. It is also about a 3-minute walk from Ōkubo Station on the Chūō-Sōbu Line.

Near the station, Okubo-dori (Okubo street) and surrounding side streets are lined with all kinds of small shops, most of them selling Korean food and pop-culture items. Also in the vicinity are Korean-themed bars, nightclubs, and restaurants.[3]

History

The station opened on 15 November 1914.[1]

During the late 1940s, while Seibu Railway was planning the extension of the Seibu Shinjuku Line from Takadanobaba to Shinjuku, Seibu planned to open a station at Shin-Okubo. Among several plans considered, one option called for the existing JR station to be moved to the west and for Seibu to take over the existing station. Toyama Park, at that time under US occupation, was being considered as a location for a new freight yard, and the rerouting of the Yamanote and Seibu lines was intended to accommodate freight traffic to and from the new yard. However, the freight yard plan was later abandoned, and the Seibu extension opened in 1952 with no stop at Shin-Okubo.[4]

Passenger statistics

In fiscal 2011, the station was used by an average of 42,433 passengers daily (boarding passengers only).[5]

The passenger figures for previous years are as shown below.

Fiscal yearDaily average
200034,155[6]
200534,104[7]
201037,344[8]
201142,433[5]

Incidents

On 26 January 2001, a 47-year-old photographer from Yokohama and a 26-year-old Korean student died at the station when they were hit by a Yamanote Line train while trying to save a drunken Japanese man who had fallen off the platform onto the tracks and was also killed in the accident.[9] The Korean student's life story formed the basis for the film 26 Years Diary, released in 2007 in Japan and in 2008 in Korea.

See also

References
  1. 各駅情報（新大久保駅） [Station Information (Shin-Ōkubo Station)] (in Japanese). Japan: East Japan Railway Company. Retrieved 28 June 2012.
  2. グループ経営構想V [Group Business Vision V] (PDF) (in Japanese). Japan: East Japan Railway Company. 30 October 2012. p. 10. Retrieved 8 November 2012.
  3. Hiragana Times, "Okubo - Tokyo's Popular Korea Town", Volume #293, March 2011, pp. 34-37.
  4. "西武｢大久保駅｣構想は､なぜ幻となったのか". Toyo Keizai. 27 September 2015. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
  5. 各駅の乗車人員 (2011年度) [Station passenger figures (Fiscal 2011)] (in Japanese). Japan: East Japan Railway Company. Retrieved 12 January 2013.
  6. 各駅の乗車人員 (2000年度) [Station passenger figures (Fiscal 2000)] (in Japanese). Japan: East Japan Railway Company. Retrieved 12 January 2013.
  7. 各駅の乗車人員 (2005年度) [Station passenger figures (Fiscal 2005)] (in Japanese). Japan: East Japan Railway Company. Retrieved 12 January 2013.
  8. 各駅の乗車人員 (2010年度) [Station passenger figures (Fiscal 2010)] (in Japanese). Japan: East Japan Railway Company. Retrieved 12 January 2013.
  9. Funeral rites held for men killed in failed station rescue, The Japan Times, 30 January 2001
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