Shinjuku Station

 

Shinjuku Station opened in 1885 as a stop on Japan Railway's Akabane-Shinagawa line (now part of the Yamanote Line). Shinjuku was still a quiet community at the time and the station was not heavily trafficked at first. The opening of the Chūō Line (1889), Keiō Line (1915) and Odakyū Line (1923) led to increased traffic through the station.

Japanese government urban planner Kensaburo Kondo designed a major revamp of the station in 1933, which included a large public square on the west side completed in 1941. Kondo's plan also called for extending the Tokyu Toyoko Line to a new underground terminal on the west side of the station and constructing an east–west underground line that would be served by the Seibu Railway and the Tokyo Kosoku Railway (forerunner of Tokyo Metro), while the Keio and Odakyu lines would use above-ground terminals to the west of the JR station. These plans were suspended upon the onset of World War II but influenced the current layout of the station area.^[2] Subway service ultimately began in 1959.

 

The Seibu Shinjuku Line was extended from Takadanobaba Station to Seibu Shinjuku Station in 1952. Seibu Shinjuku was built as a temporary station pending a planned redevelopment of the east side of Shinjuku Station, which was to feature a large station building that would house a new Seibu terminal on its second floor. Seibu abandoned its plan to use the building due to a lack of space for trains longer than six cars; the building is now known as Lumine Est and retains some design features originally intended to accommodate the Seibu terminal (in particular, a very high ceiling on the first floor and a very low ceiling on the second floor). In the late 1980s, Seibu planned to build an underground terminal on the east side of Shinjuku but indefinitely postponed the plan in 1995 due to costs and declining passenger growth.^[2]

On 8 August 1967, a freight train carrying jet fuel bound for the U.S. air bases at Tachikawa and Yokota collided with another freight train and caught fire on the Chūō Rapid tracks. The incident stoked ongoing political controversy in Japan regarding the Vietnam War.^[3] The station was a major site for student protests in 1968 and 1969, the height of civil unrest in postwar Japan. On 21 October 1968, 290,000 marchers participated in International Anti-War Day, taking over Shinjuku station and forcing trains to stop. In May and June 1969, members of the antiwar group Beheiren carrying guitars and calling themselves "folk guerrillas" led weekly singalongs in the underground plaza outside the west exit of the station, attracting crowds of thousands. Participants described it as a "liberated zone" and a "community of encounter."^[4] In July, riot police cleared the plaza with tear gas and changed signs in the station to read "West Exit Concourse" instead of "West Exit Plaza." The incident represented a significant defeat for public activism in Tokyo.

There have been plans at various points in history to connect Shinjuku to the Shinkansen network, and the 1973 Shinkansen Basic Plan, still in force, specifies that the station should be the southern terminus of the Jōetsu Shinkansen line to Niigata. While construction of the Ōmiya-Shinjuku link never started and the Jōetsu line presently terminates in Tokyo Station, the right of way, including an area underneath the station, remains reserved.

On 5 May 1995, the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult attempted a chemical terrorist attack by setting off a cyanide gas device in a toilet in the underground concourse, barely a month after the gas attack on the Tokyo subway which killed 13, left 6,252 people with non-fatal injuries, severely injured 50 people, and caused 984 cases of temporary vision problems. This time the attack was thwarted by staff who extinguished the burning device.

The station facilities on the Marunouchi Line were inherited by Tokyo Metro after the privatization of the Teito Rapid Transit Authority (TRTA) in 2004.^[5]

Station numbering was introduced to the Odakyu terminal in 2014 with Shinjuku being assigned station number OH01.^[6][7]

A major expansion of the JR terminal was completed in April 2016, adding a 32-story office tower, bus terminal, taxi terminal, and numerous shops and restaurants.^[8]

Station numbering was introduced to the JR East platforms in 2016 with Shinjuku being assigned station numbers JB10 for the Chūō-Sobu line, JS20 for the Shonan-Shinjuku line, JA11 for the Saikyō line, JC05 for the Chuo line rapid, and JY17 for the Yamanote line. At the same time, JR East assigned the station a 3-letter code to its major transfer stations; Shinjuku was assigned the code "SJK".^[9][10]

In 2020, the east–west free passageway was opened, shortening the time required for pedestrians to pass between the east and west exits by 10 minutes.^[11] A major redevelopment of the station and the surrounding area began in July 2021 with the aim of improving pedestrian flow and making it easier and faster to cut through the east and west sides of the station. Construction is expected to continue until 2047.^[12]

 

When the Keio Line extended to Shinjuku in 1915, its terminal was located several blocks east of the government railway (presently JR) station. The terminal was first named Shinjuku-Oiwake Station (新宿追分駅) and was on the street near the Isetan department store. In 1927, the station was moved from the street to a newly built terminal adjacent to the original station. The station building housed a department store. The station name was changed to Yotsuya-Shinjuku Station (四谷新宿駅) in 1930 and again to Keiō Shinjuku Station (京王新宿駅) in 1937.

The tracks from the terminal were on the Kōshū Kaidō highway, which crosses the Yamanote Line and the Chūō Line in front of the south entrance of Shinjuku Station by a bridge. The Keiō Line had a station for access to Shinjuku Station, named Teishajō-mae Station (停車場前駅) and renamed in 1937 Shōsen Shinjuku Ekimae Station (省線新宿駅前駅).

In July 1945, the terminal of the Keiō Line was relocated to the present location, though on the ground level, on the west side of Shinjuku Station. Keiō Shinjuku Station and Shōsen Shinjuku Ekimae Station were closed. This was because the trains faced difficulty in climbing up the slopes of the bridge over the governmental railway after one of the nearby transformer substations was destroyed by an air raid. The site of Keiō Shinjuku Station near Shinjuku-Sanchōme subway station is now occupied by two buildings owned by Keiō: Keiō Shinjuku Sanchōme Building and Keiō Shinjuku Oiwake Building.

Shinjuku is served by the following railway systems:

•   JR East:
  • ■ Chūō Main Line (Limited Express)
  • JC Chūō Line (Rapid)
  • JB Chūō–Sōbu Line
  • JA Saikyō Line
  • JS Shōnan–Shinjuku Line
  • JY Yamanote Line
•   Keio Corporation:
  • KO Keio Line
  • KO Keio New Line
•   Odakyu Electric Railway:
  • OH Odakyu Odawara Line
•   Toei Subway:
  • E Ōedo Line
  • S Shinjuku Line
•   Tokyo Metro:
  • M Marunouchi Line

SJKJY17JC05JB10JS20JA11 Shinjuku Station 新宿駅
Shinjuku Station South entrance in October 2021
General information
Location	3-38-1 Shinjuku, Shinjuku City, Tokyo Japan
Operated by	JR East
Line(s)	JY Yamanote Line JC Chūō Line (Chūō Main Line) JB Chūō–Sōbu Line (Chūō Main Line) JS Shōnan–Shinjuku Line JA Saikyō Line
Platforms	8 island platforms
Tracks	16
Connections	Bus terminal
Construction
Structure type	At grade
Accessible	Yes
Other information
Station code	SJK
History
Opened	1 March 1885; 139 years ago (1885-03-01)
Passengers
FY2015	775,386 daily[13]
Services
Preceding station   JR East Following station Yoyogi JY18 Next counter-clockwise Yamanote Line Shin-Ōkubo JY16 Next clockwise Tachikawa JC19 towards Minami-Otari Azusa Kinshichō JO22 towards Chiba Tokyo TYOJC01 Terminus Tachikawa JC19 towards Ryūō Kaiji Tokyo TYOJC01 (limited service) Terminus Tachikawa JC19 towards Ōtsuki Fuji Excursion Kinshichō One-way operation Tachikawa JC19 towards Hachiōji Hachioji Tokyo TYOJC01 Terminus Tachikawa JC19 towards Ōme Ōme Kokubunji One-way operation Chūō Line Commuter Special Rapid Yotsuya JC04 towards Tokyo Nakano JC06 towards Ōtsuki Chūō Line Chūō Special Rapid Nakano JC06 towards Tachikawa Chūō Line Ōme Special Rapid Nakano JC06 towards Ōtsuki Chūō Line Commuter Rapid Yotsuya One-way operation Chūō Line Rapid Yotsuya JC04 towards Tokyo Ōkubo JB09 towards Mitaka Chūō–Sōbu Line Yoyogi JB11 towards Chiba Terminus Narita Express Shibuya SBYJS19 towards Narita Airport Terminal 1 Shibuya SBYJS19 towards Itō Saphir Odoriko Terminus Shibuya SBYJS19 towards Odawara Shōnan Terminus Nikkō and Kinugawa Ikebukuro IKBJS21 towards Tōbu Nikkō or Kinugawa-Onsen Shibuya SBYJS19 towards Odawara or Zushi Shōnan–Shinjuku Line Special Rapid Rapid Local Ikebukuro IKBJS21 towards Takasaki, Maebashi or Utsunomiya Shibuya SBYJA10 towards Ōsaki Saikyō Line Commuter Rapid Rapid Local Ikebukuro IKBJA12 towards Ōmiya Shibuya SBYJA10 towards Ebina Sōtetsu–JR Link Line Terminus

The station is centered around facilities servicing the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) lines. These consist of eight ground-level island platforms (16 tracks) on a north–south axis, connected by two overhead and two underground concourses. Most JR services here are urban and suburban mass transit lines, although many limited express services to Kōfu and Matsumoto on the Chūō Main Line and to Nikkō and Kinugawa Onsen via joint operations with the private Tōbu Railway also begin and end at this station, including Narita Express services to and from Narita International Airport. The JR section alone handles an average of 1.5 million passengers a day.

•  
  East gates in July 2021
•  
  West gates in July 2021
•  
  Internal concourse in July 2021
•  
  Central East gates in November 2021
•  
  Central West gates in September 2021
•  
  Central South gates in November 2021
•  
  South East gates in April 2021
•  
  Koshu Kaido gates in September 2021
•  
  Miraina Tower gates in September 2021
•  
  New South gates in September 2021

1-2	JA Saikyō Line	for Shibuya, Ōsaki, and Shin-Kiba (via the R Rinkai Line)
		for Hazawa yokohama-kokudai and Ebina (via the   Sōtetsu Line)
		for Ikebukuro, Ōmiya, and Kawagoe (via the ■ Kawagoe Line)
	JS Shōnan-Shinjuku Line	for Yokohama, Ōfuna, Chigasaki, Hiratsuka, Kōzu, and Odawara (via the JT Tōkaidō Main Line)
		for Yokohama, Ōfuna, Kamakura, and Zushi (via the JO Yokosuka Line)
3	JA Saikyō Line	for Ikebukuro, Ōmiya, and Kawagoe (via the ■ Kawagoe Line)
4	JA Saikyō Line	for Ikebukuro, Ōmiya, and Kawagoe (via the ■ Kawagoe Line)
	JS Shōnan-Shinjuku Line	for Ōmiya, Kumagaya, and Takasaki (via the JU Takasaki Line)
		for Ōmiya, Oyama, and Utsunomiya (via the JU Utsunomiya Line)
5-6	■ Limited Express	■ Shonan for Odawara
		■ Saphir ODORIKO for Izukyu Shimoda
		■ Kinugawa for Kinugawa-Onsen
		■ Narita Express for Narita Airport
		■ Nikkō for Tōbu Nikkō
7-8	JC Chūō Line (Rapid)	for Ochanomizu and Tokyo
		Ltd. Express Hachiōji / Ōme for Tokyo
		■ Ltd. Express Azusa / Kaiji for Tokyo[Note 1] and Chiba[Note 2]
		■ Ltd. Express Shinjuku Sazanami for Chiba and Tateyama
		■ Ltd. Express Shinjuku Wakashio for Chiba and Awa-Kamogawa
9-10	JC Chūō Line (Rapid)	Ltd. Express Hachiōji for Hachiōji
		Ltd. Express Ōme for Ōme
		Holiday Rapid Okutama for Okutama
	■ Chūō Main Line	Ltd. Express Azusa for Matsumoto and Minami-Otari
		Ltd. Express Fuji Excursion for Kawaguchiko
		Ltd. Express Kaiji for Kōfu and Ryūō
11-12	JC Chūō Line (Rapid)	for Nakano, Tachikawa, Hachiōji, Takao, and Ōtsuki
		for Haijima and Ōme (via the JC Ōme Line)
13	JB Chūō-Sōbu Line	for Suidōbashi, Akihabara, and Chiba
14	JY Yamanote Line (counter-clockwise)	for Harajuku, Shibuya, and Shinagawa
15	JY Yamanote Line (clockwise)	for Ikebukuro, Tabata, Nippori, and Ueno
16	JB Chūō-Sōbu Line	for Higashi-Nakano, Nakano, and Mitaka

•  
  JR East platforms 1 and 2
•  
  JR East platforms 3 and 4
•  
  JR East platforms 5 and 6
•  
  JR East platforms 7 and 8
•  
  JR East platforms 9 and 10
•  
  JR East platforms 11 and 12
•  
  JR East platforms 13 and 14
•  
  JR East platforms 15 and 16
•  
  Station layout

Shinjuku Station 新宿駅
Odakyu station
West exit of Odakyu Shinjuku Station
General information
Location	1-1-3 Nishishinjuku, Shinjuku, Tokyo Japan
Operated by	Odakyu Electric Railway
Line(s)	Odakyu Odawara Line
Construction
Structure type	Ground level (platforms 1–6) Underground (platforms 7–10)
Accessible	Yes (all levels)
Other information
Station code	OH01
History
Opened	1927
Passengers
FY2015	492,324 daily
Services
Preceding station   Odakyu Following station Seijōgakuen-Mae   towards Hakone-Yumoto, Gotemba or Katase-Enoshima Romancecar Terminus Yoyogi-Uehara   towards Odawara Odawara Line Rapid Express Yoyogi-Uehara   towards Shin-Yurigaoka Odawara Line Commuter Express Yoyogi-Uehara   towards Odawara Odawara Line Express Minami-Shinjuku   towards Hakone-Yumoto Odawara Line Local

The terminus for the private Odakyu Odawara Line is parallel to the JR platforms on the west side and handles an average of 490,000 passengers daily. This is a major commuter route stretching southwest through the suburbs and out towards the coastal city of Odawara and the mountains of Hakone. The ten platforms are built on two levels beneath the Odakyu department store; three express service tracks (six platforms) on the ground level and two tracks (four platforms) on the level below. Each track has platforms on both sides in order to completely separate boarding and alighting passengers.

Chest-high platform screen doors were added to platforms 4 and 5 in September 2012.^[14]

•  
  South gate
•  
  West gate
•  
  Ground level platform 1
•  
  Ground level platforms 2 and 3
•  
  Ground level platforms 4 and 5
•  
  Ground level platform 6
•  
  Underground platforms

KO01 S01 Shinjuku Station 新宿駅
Keio/Toei Subway station
West exit of Keio Shinjuku Station
General information
Location	1-1-4 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku City, Tokyo Japan
Operated by	Keio Corporation   Toei Subway
Line(s)	Keiō Line   Keiō New Line S Toei Shinjuku Line
Platforms	3 bay platforms
Tracks	3
Construction
Structure type	Underground
Accessible	Yes
Other information
Station code	KO-01
History
Opened	1915
Rebuilt	1978
Passengers
FY2015	757,823 daily
Services
Preceding station   Following station Meidaimae KO06 towards Keiō-hachiōji Keiō Liner Terminus Meidaimae KO06 towards Hashimoto Sasazuka KO04 towards Keiō-hachiōji Keiō Line Special Express Sasazuka KO04 towards Keiō-hachiōji Keiō Line Express Semi Express Rapid Local Hatsudai KO02 towards Sasazuka Keiō New Line Express Semi Express Rapid Local through to Shinjuku Line Preceding station   Toei Subway Following station through to Keiō New Line Shinjuku Line Express Ichigaya S04 towards Motoyawata Shinjuku Line Local Shinjuku-sanchome S02 towards Motoyawata
Track layout Legend 3 2 1                                                             ← Sasazuka

Keio operates two sections of Shinjuku Station, the traditional Keio Line stub terminal and a separate through station connecting the Keio New Line with the Toei Shinjuku Line. In 2019, 788,567 passengers used the Keio complex daily (Keio and Keio New Lines), which makes it among the busiest among the non-JR Group railways of Japan.^[15]

The Keio Line concourse is located to the west of the Odakyu line concourse, two floors below ground level under the Keio department store. It consists of three platforms stretching north to south. An additional thin platform between Platforms 2 and 3 is used for alighting only. This suburban commuter line links Shinjuku to the city of Hachiōji to the west.^[16] Chest-high platform edge doors were introduced on the Keio Line platforms in March 2014.^[17] The doors are different colours for each platform; the doors on Platform 2 are green.^[17]

•  
  West gates
•  
  Lumine gates
•  
  Keio Department Store gates
•  
  Hiroba gates (exit only)
•  
  Platforms 1 and 2
•  
  Platforms for getting off
•  
  Platform 3

The shared facilities for the Toei Shinjuku subway line and the Keiō New Line are distinctively called Keiō New Line Shinjuku Station (新線新宿駅, Shinsen Shinjuku-eki) and consist of two platforms stretching east–west five floors beneath the Kōshū Kaidō avenue to the southwest of the JR section. The concourse is managed by Keio Corporation but is in a separate location from the main Keio platforms. Further south (and deeper underground) are the two north-to-south Toei Ōedo subway line platforms.

•  
  Ticket gates for Keio New Line and Toei Shinjuku Line, 2010
•  
  Island platform for Keio New Line and Toei Shinjuku Line, 2010

E27 Shinjuku Station 新宿駅
Toei Subway station
Oedo Line platform
General information
Location	2-1-1 Yoyogi, Shibuya, Tokyo Japan
Operated by	Toei Subway
Line(s)	E Ōedo Line
Platforms	1 island platform
Tracks	2
Connections	Shinjuku Expressway Bus Terminal
Construction
Structure type	Underground
Accessible	Yes
Other information
Station code	E-27
History
Opened	19 December 1997; 27 years ago (1997-12-19)
Services
Preceding station   Toei Subway Following station Tochomae E28 towards Hikarigaoka Ōedo Line Yoyogi E26 towards Tochōmae

Toei Ōedo Line's two underground platforms stretch north–south to the south of the Toei Shinjuku Line and Keio New Line facilities. This is on the 7th basement floor of Tokyo prefectural road 414(Yotsuya-Tsunohazu Ave.).

M08 Shinjuku Station 新宿駅
Tokyo Metro station
Marunouchi Line platform
General information
Location	1st Nishiguchi Chikagai,1 Nishishinjuku, Shinjuku, Tokyo Japan
Operated by	Tokyo Metro
Line(s)	M Marunouchi Line
Platforms	1 island platform
Tracks	2
Construction
Structure type	Underground
Accessible	Yes
Other information
Station code	M-08
History
Opened	15 March 1959; 65 years ago (1959-03-15)
Services
Preceding station   Tokyo Metro Following station Nishi-Shinjuku M07 towards Ogikubo or Hōnanchō Marunouchi Line Shinjuku-sanchome M09 towards Ikebukuro

Tokyo Metro's two Marunouchi Line underground platforms stretch east–west to the north of the JR and Odakyu facilities, directly below the Metro Promenade underground mall.

 

 

Many department stores and shopping malls are built directly into the station. These include

• Lumine Est – above JR's east exit
• Odakyu department store – above the Odakyu line concourse (Closed down in October 2022.)
• Odakyu Mylord – above the southern end of the Odakyu line concourse
• Lumine 1 shopping mall – above the Keio Line concourse
• Lumine 2 shopping mall – above JR's south and Lumine exits
• Keio Department store – above the Keio Line concourse
• Keio Mall – underground mall to the southwest of the Keio Line concourse
• Odakyu Ace – underground malls beneath the bus terminal by the west exit.

In addition to the above, the Metro Promenade, which is an underground mall owned by Tokyo Metro, extends eastwards from the station beneath Shinjuku-dori avenue, all the way to the adjacent Shinjuku-sanchōme station with 60 exits along the way. The Metro Promenade in turn connects to Shinjuku Subnade, another underground shopping mall, which leads onto Seibu Railway's Seibu-Shinjuku station.

Shinjuku Station is connected by underground passageways and shopping malls to

• Nishi-shinjuku Station (Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line)
• Seibu-Shinjuku Station (Seibu Shinjuku Line)
• Shinjuku-nishiguchi Station (Toei Ōedo Line)
• Shinjuku-sanchōme Station (Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line, Tokyo Metro Fukutoshin Line, and Toei Shinjuku Line)
• Tochōmae Station (Toei Ōedo Line)

Nearby non-connected stations (within 500 meters of an underground passageway or station) include

• Shinjuku-gyoemmae Station
• Yoyogi Station
• Higashi-shinjuku Station
• Okubo Station
• Shin-Okubo Station
• Minami-Shinjuku Station

There is a bus terminal at the west exit servicing both local and long-distance buses and a JR Highway Bus terminal at the New South Gates.

On April 4, 2016, the new bus terminal and commercial facilities nearby the south exit, named Busta Shinjuku [ja] (Shinjuku Expressway Bus Terminal), opened for service.^[18] Considerable numbers of coaches and airport buses depart from this new terminal.

The figures below are the official number of passengers entering and exiting (except for JR East) each day released by each train operator. The figure for JR East only includes entering passengers.

Average number of passengers per day by fiscal year for the JR East station (1913–1935)

Average number of passengers per day by fiscal year for the JR East station (1953–2000)

Average number of passengers per day by fiscal year for the JR East station (2001–present)

 

The station and other parts of the Toei Ōedo Line are referenced in the Digimon Adventure franchise.^[46][47] Contemporary British painter Carl Randall (who spent ten years living in Tokyo as an artist) depicted the station area in his large oil painting Shinjuku, exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London in 2013.^{[48][49][50][51]}

• List of East Japan Railway Company stations
• List of railway stations in Japan
• Transport in Greater Tokyo
• World's busiest railway stations

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Shinjuku Station.

• JR map of Shinjuku Station
• map of Odakyu Shinjuku Station
• Shinjuku station map from Keio
• map of Toei Subway Shinjuku Station (in Japanese)
• map of Tokyo Metro Shinjuku Station (in Japanese)

35°41′22″N 139°42′02″E / 35.68944°N 139.70056°E / 35.68944; 139.70056