Shinjuku Station

Shinjuku Station 新宿駅
Aerial view from south (March 2016)
General information
Location	Shinjuku and Shibuya wards, Tokyo Japan
Operated by	JR East Keio Corporation Odakyu Electric Railway Tokyo Metro Toei Subway
Connections	Seibu Shinjuku Line (Seibu-Shinjuku) Shinjuku Expressway Bus Terminal Shinjuku Highway Bus Terminal
History
Opened	1885 (1885)
Location Shinjuku Station Location within Special wards of Tokyo Shinjuku Station Shinjuku Station (Tokyo) Shinjuku Station Shinjuku Station (Japan)

Shinjuku Station (新宿駅, Shinjuku-eki) is a major railway station in the Shinjuku and Shibuya wards in Tokyo, Japan. In Shinjuku, it is part of the Nishi-Shinjuku and Shinjuku districts. In Shibuya, it is located in the Yoyogi and Sendagaya districts. It is the world's busiest railway station.

Serving as the main connecting hub for rail traffic between Tokyo's special wards and Western Tokyo on inter-city rail, commuter rail, and subway lines, the station was used by an average of 3.64 million people per day in 2007, making it, by far, the world's busiest transport hub (and registered as such with Guinness World Records). The main JR station and the directly adjacent private railways have a total of 35 platforms, including an underground arcade, above ground arcade and numerous hallways with another 17 platforms (53 total) can be accessed through hallways to 5 directly connected stations without surfacing outside. The entire above/underground complex has well over 200 exits.

Lines

Shinjuku is served by the following railway systems:

• JR East:
  • ■ Chuo Main Line (Limited Express)
  • JC Chūō Line (Rapid)
  • JB Chuo-Sobu Line
  • JA Saikyo Line
  • JS Shonan-Shinjuku Line
  • JY Yamanote Line
• Keio Corporation:
  • KO Keio Line
  • KO Keio New Line
• Odakyu Electric Railway:
  • OH Odakyu Odawara Line
• Toei Subway:
  • E Toei Oedo Line
  • S Toei Shinjuku Line
• Tokyo Metro:
  • M Marunouchi Line

Station facilities

JR East

SJKJY17JC05JB10JS20JA11 Shinjuku Station 新宿駅
JR East station
Shinjuku Station South gates
General information
Location	3-38-1 Shinjuku, Shinjuku, Tokyo Japan
Operated by	JR East
Line(s)	JA Saikyo Line JS Shonan-Shinjuku Line JY Yamanote Line JC Chuo Line (Rapid) JB Chuo-Sobu Line
Connections	Bus terminal
History
Opened	1885
Passengers
FY2015	760,043 daily
Services

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 JR's long-distance express services to Kōfu and Matsumoto on the Chūō Main Line, Narita Express to Narita Airport, and joint operations with Tobu Railway to Nikkō and Kinugawa Onsen also use this station. The JR section alone handles an average of 1.5 million passengers a day.

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	■ Home Liner Odawara for Odawara
		■ Kinugawa for Kinugawa-Onsen
		■ Narita Express for Ikebukuro, Takao, and Ōmiya
		■ Narita Express for Narita Airport
		■ Nikkō for Tōbu Nikkō
		■ Super View Odoriko for Atami, Itō, and Izukyū Shimoda
7-8	JC Chūō Line (Rapid)	for Ochanomizu and Tokyo
		Ltd. Express Hachiōji / Ōme for Tokyo
		■ Ltd. Express Azusa / Kaiji for Tokyo and Chiba
		■ 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
	■ 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)
		for Musashi-Itsukaichi (via the JC Itsukaichi Line)
		■ for Komagawa (via the ■ Hachikō 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

Odakyu

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
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 Karakida 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.

Ground level

1	■	Not in use
2, 3	■ Ltd. Express. "Romancecar"	for Odawara, Hakone-Yumoto, Fujisawa, and Gotemba
4, 5	■ Rapid Express	for Shin-Yurigaoka, Machida, Ebina, Hon-Atsugi, Shin-Matsuda, Odawara, Chūō-Rinkan, Yamato, Shōnandai and Fujisawa
	■ Express	for Noborito, Shin-Yurigaoka, Machida, Ebina, Hon-Atsugi, Shin-Matsuda, Odawara, Chūō-Rinkan, Yamato, Shōnandai, Fujisawa and Katase-Enoshima
6	■	(Alighting only)

Underground level

7	■	(Alighting only)
8, 9	■ Local	for Shin-Yurigaoka, Sagami-Ono, and Hon-Atsugi
10	■	(Alighting only)

• 
  South gate
• 
  West gate
• 
  Ground level platforms
• 
  Underground platforms

Keio/Toei Subway (Toei Shinjuku Line)

KO01 S01 Shinjuku Station 新宿駅
Keio/Toei Subway station
West exit of Keio Shinjuku Station
General information
Location	1-1-4 Nishishinjuku, Shinjuku, Tokyo Japan
Operated by	Keio Corporation
Line(s)	Keiō Line Keiō New Line S Toei Shinjuku Line
History
Opened	1915
Rebuilt	1978
Passengers
FY2015	757,823 daily
Services
Preceding station Following station Fuchū towards Keiō-hachiōji Keiō Liner Terminus Meidaimae towards Keiō-hachiōji Keiō Line Special Express Sasazuka towards Keiō-hachiōji Keiō Line Semi Special Express Express Semi Express Rapid Local Hatsudai 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

The Keio Line concourse is located to the west of the Odakyu line concourse, two floors below ground level under Keio department store. It consists of three platforms stretching north to south. Approximately 720,000 passengers use this section daily, which makes it the busiest amongst the non-JR Group railways of Japan. This suburban commuter line links Shinjuku to the city of Hachiōji to the west. Chest-high platform edge doors were introduced on the Keio Line platforms in March 2014. The doors are different colours for each platform. The doors on platform 2 are green.

Keio Line

1	KO Local	for Meidaimae, Chōfu, Keio Tama Center, Hashimoto, Keio Hachiōji, and Takaosanguchi
2	KO Keio Liner, Special Express, Semi-Special Express, Express, Semi Express, Rapid, Local	for Meidaimae, Chōfu, Keio Tama Center, Hashimoto, Keio Hachiōji, and Takaosanguchi
	KO	(Alighting only)
3	KO Special Express, Semi-Special Express, Express, Semi Express, Rapid	for Meidaimae, Chōfu, Keio Tama Center, Hashimoto, Keio Hachiōji, and Takaosanguchi

• 
  Concourse of Keio Line, 2006
• 
  Bay plaforms of Keio Line, 2016

Keio New Line and Toei Shinjuku Line

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 to the main Keio platforms. Further south (and deeper underground) are the two north-to-south Toei Ōedo subway line platforms.

4	KO Keio New Line	for Hatsudai, Hatagaya, Meidaimae, Chōfu, and Hashimoto
5	S Toei Shinjuku Line	for Ichigaya, Kudanshita, Jimbocho, Ōjima, and Moto-Yawata

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

Toei Subway (Toei Oedo Line)

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 Toei Oedo Line
Connections	Shinjuku Expressway Bus Terminal
Other information
Station code	E-27
History
Opened	1997
Services
Preceding station Toei Subway Following station Tochomae E28 towards Hikarigaoka Ōedo Line Yoyogi E26 towards Tochōmae

Toei Oedo 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.).

6	E Toei Oedo Line	for Roppongi and Daimon
7	E Toei Oedo Line	for Tochōmae and Hikarigaoka

Tokyo Metro

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 Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line
Other information
Station code	M-08
History
Opened	1959
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.

1	M Marunouchi Line	for Nakano-sakaue, Ogikubo, and Hōnanchō
2	M Marunouchi Line	for Akasaka-mitsuke, Ginza, Ōtemachi, and Ikebukuro

Commercial facilities

East exit of Shinjuku Station

South exit of Shinjuku Station

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
• Odakyu Mylord – above the southern end of 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

Bus terminals

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 south exit, named Busta Shinjuku (Shinjuku Expressway Bus Terminal), opened for service. Considerable numbers of the coaches and the airport buses depart from this new terminal.

See also: Shinjuku Highway Bus Terminal

Passenger statistics

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.

Operator		Number	Fiscal year	Source	Note
JR East		751,018 (boarding only)	2013		Boarding passengers only. Busiest station in Japan.
Odakyu		494,184	2013		The busiest Odakyu station
Keio		730,849	2013		The busiest Japanese private (i.e. non-JR) railway station
Tokyo Metro		227,366	2013		The 6th busiest Tokyo Metro station
Toei	Shinjuku Line	266,869	2013	134,185 entries and 132,684 exits	The busiest Toei subway station
	Oedo Line	133,075	2013	64,701 entries and 68,374 exits

The passenger figures (boarding passengers only) for the JR East (formerly JNR) station in previous years are as shown below.

Fiscal year	Daily average
1913	5,052
1960	305,236
1971	614,419
1984	648,659
2000	753,791
2005	747,930
2010	736,715
2011	734,154
2012	742,833
2013	751,018

History

Shinjuku Station in 1925

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 increasing 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. Subway service ultimately began in 1959.

Lumine Est building, originally designed to accommodate the Seibu Shinjuku Line on its second floor

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.

On August 8, 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. The station was a major site for student protests in 1968 and 1969, the height of civil unrest in postwar Japan. On October 21, 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." 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 into 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 May 5, 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.

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.

Keiō Shinjuku Station

Keio Shinjuku Oiwake Building, the site of the former terminal

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 the 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.

Cultural references

The station and other parts of the Toei Ōedo Line are referenced in the Digimon Adventure franchise. Contemporary British painter Carl Randall (who spent 10 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 2013.

Shinjuku, by Carl Randall

See also

• List of East Japan Railway Company stations
• List of railway stations in Japan
• Transport in Greater Tokyo
• Gare du Nord, the busiest railway station outside Japan

External links

• JR map of Shinjuku Station
• map of Odakyu Shinjuku Station
• [1]
• map of Toei Subway Shinjuku Station (in Japanese)
• map of Tokyo Metro Shinjuku Station (in Japanese)