is a major railway station in Tokyo, Japan, that serves as the main connecting hub for rail traffic between central/eastern Tokyo (the special wards) and Western Tokyo on the inter-city rail, commuter rail, and subway lines. The station straddles the boundary between the Shinjuku and Shibuya special wards. In Shinjuku, it is in the Nishi-Shinjuku and Shinjuku districts; in Shibuya, it is in the Yoyogi and Sendagaya districts.
The station was used by an average of 3.59 million people per day in 2018, making it the world's busiest railway station by far (and registered as such with Guinness World Records). The main East Japan Railway Company (JR East) station and the directly adjacent private railways have a total of 35 platforms, an underground arcade, above-ground arcade and numerous hallways with another 17 platforms (52 total) that can be accessed through hallways to five directly connected stations without surfacing outside. The entire above/underground complex has well over 200 exits.
History
thumbnail|Shinjuku Station in 1925
Shinjuku Station opened in 1885 as a stop on Nippon Railway's Akabane-Shinagawa line (now part of the Yamanote Line). The kanji "新宿" shin juku literally stand for "new (relay-)station". Shinjuku was still a quiet community at the time and the station was not heavily trafficked at first. When the Kobu Railway (now a part of the Chūō Main Line) opened between Shinjuku and Tachikawa Station in 1889, farms were still present near the station. The Keiō Line connected to the station from the west in 1915. Around this period, the east side of the station, where the , a former Shukuba existed, was bustling with people. When the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake happened, the area located in the east side of the station received relatively small damage compared to Nihonbashi. Since the station was a convenient place to travel, many stores relocated near the station after the earthquake. Odakyu Electric Railway opened the Odakyū Odawara Line from Shinjuku to Odawara in 1927. As the platforms of the station were at the west side of the station, traffic in the west exit increased, although it did not compare to that of the east exit.
thumb|The Concourse of Shinjuku Station in the 1930s
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. During World War II, American bombings damaged the substation Keio used to power the railway line, resulting in reduced voltage. This prevented Keio services from using the bridges at the former Kōshū Kaidō. The Keio Shinjuku Station's platforms were forced to relocate to the west side of the station as a result. 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." 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."
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 had killed 13, left 6,252 people with non-fatal injuries, severely injured 50 people, and caused 984 cases of temporary vision problems). 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. Station numbering was introduced to the Odakyu terminal in 2014 with Shinjuku being assigned station number OH01. 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.
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".
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. 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.
Keiō Shinjuku Station
thumb|Keio Shinjuku Station and the [[Matsuya (department store)|Matsuya Department Store Building (1936)]]
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 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 in 1930 and again to 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 and renamed in 1937 .
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.
Lines
Shinjuku is served by the following railway systems:
- :
- Chūō Main Line (Limited Express)
- Chūō Line (Rapid)
- Chūō-Sōbu Line
- Saikyō Line
- Shōnan–Shinjuku Line
- Yamanote Line
- 32px Keio Corporation:
- Keio Line
- Keio New Line
- 16px Odakyu Electric Railway:
- Odakyu Odawara Line
- :
- :
Station facilities
JR East
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.
<gallery widths=180>
File:JRE-Shinjuku-STA East-Gate.jpg|East gates in July 2021
File:JRE-Shinjuku-STA West-Gate.jpg|West gates in July 2021
File:JRE-Shinjuku-STA Connecting-passage.jpg|Internal concourse in July 2021
File:JRE-Shinjuku-STA Central-east-Gate.jpg|Central East gates in November 2021
File:JRE-Shinjuku-STA Central-West-Gate.jpg|Central West gates in September 2021
File:JRE-Shinjuku-STA South-Gate.jpg|Central South gates in November 2021
File:JR Shinjuku Station South East Gates (20210410).jpg|South East gates in April 2021
File:JRE-Shinjuku-STA Koshu-Kaido-Gate.jpg|Koshu Kaido gates in September 2021
File:JRE-Shinjuku-STA MIRAINA-TOWER-Gate.jpg|Miraina Tower gates in September 2021
File:JRE-Shinjuku-STA New-South-Gate.jpg|New South gates in September 2021
</gallery>
<gallery widths=180>
File:JRE-Shinjuku-STA Home1-2.jpg|JR East platforms 1 and 2
File:JRE-Shinjuku-STA Home3-4.jpg|JR East platforms 3 and 4
File:JRE-Shinjuku-STA Home5-6.jpg|JR East platforms 5 and 6
File:JRE-Shinjuku-STA Home7-8.jpg|JR East platforms 7 and 8
File:JRE-Shinjuku-STA Home9-10.jpg|JR East platforms 9 and 10
File:JRE-Shinjuku-STA Home11-12.jpg|JR East platforms 11 and 12
File:JRE-Shinjuku-STA Home13-14.jpg|JR East platforms 13 and 14
File:JRE-Shinjuku-STA Home15-16.jpg|JR East platforms 15 and 16
File:JR Shinjuku station track map 2010.svg|Station layout
</gallery>
Odakyu
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
Underground level
<gallery widths=180>
File:OER Shinjuku station South.jpg|South gate
File:Odakyu-Shinjuku-STA West-ground-Gate.jpg|West gate
File:Odakyu-Shinjuku-STA Home1.jpg|Ground level platform 1
File:Odakyu-Shinjuku-STA Home2-3.jpg|Ground level platforms 2 and 3
File:Odakyu-Shinjuku-STA Home4-5.jpg|Ground level platforms 4 and 5
File:Odakyu-Shinjuku-STA Home6.jpg|Ground level platform 6
File:Shinjuku-Sta-Odakyu-B1-Platform.JPG|Underground platforms
</gallery>
Keio/Toei Subway (Toei Shinjuku Line)
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.
Keio Line
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. 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. Considerable numbers of coaches and airport buses depart from this new 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.
{| class="wikitable"
! colspan=2 | Operator !! Number !! Fiscal year !! Source !! Note
|-
| colspan=2 | JR East || 751,018 (boarding only) || 2013 ||
|| Boarding passengers only. The busiest station in Japan.
|-
| colspan=2 | Odakyu || 494,184 || 2013 || || The busiest Odakyu station
|-
| colspan=2 | Keio || 730,849|| 2013 || || The busiest Keio station, the sum of the ridership of the Keiō New Line and Keiō Line.
|-
| colspan=2 | Tokyo Metro || 227,366 || 2013 || || The 6th busiest Tokyo Metro station
|-
| rowspan=2 | Toei || Shinjuku Line || 266,869 || 2013 || 134,185 entries and 132,684 exits|| rowspan=2 | The busiest Toei subway station
|-
| Oedo Line|| 133,075 || 2013 || 64,701 entries and 68,374 exits
|-
|1915
|4,684
|-
|1920
|14,358
|-
|1925
|40,061
|-
|1930
|71,555
|-
|1935
|66,230
|}
Average number of passengers per day by fiscal year for the JR East station (1953–2000)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Fiscal year !! Daily average
|-
|1953
|133,435
|-
|1955
|153,313
|-
| 1960|| 305,236
|}
Average number of passengers per day by fiscal year for the JR East station (2001–present)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Fiscal year !! Daily average
|-
|2001
|745,153
|-
|2002
|748,515
|-
|2003
|746,293
|-
|2004
|742,183
|-
| 2005|| 747,930
|-
|2006
|757,013
|-
|2007
|785,801
|-
|2008
|766,020
|-
|2009
|748,522
|-
| 2010 || 736,715
|-
| 2011 || 734,154
|-
| 2012 || 742,833
|-
| 2013 || 751,018
|-
|2015
|760,043
|-
|2016
|769,307
|-
|2017
|778,618
|-
|2018
|789,366
|-
|2019
|775,386
|-
|2020
|477,073
|-
|2021
|522,178
|-
|2022
|602,558
|-
|2023
|650,602
|-
|2024
|666,809
|}
Cultural references
thumb|Shinjuku, by Carl Randall
The station and other parts of the Toei Ōedo Line are referenced in the Digimon Adventure franchise. 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.
Shinjuku also served as the backdrop to the finale of the manga/anime Jujutsu Kaisen from Chapters 223-267, in the “Inhuman Makyo Shinjuku Showdown”.
See also
- List of East Japan Railway Company stations
- List of railway stations in Japan
- Transport in Greater Tokyo
- World's busiest railway stations