Chōshi Station

Chōshi Station (銚子駅) is an interchange passenger railway station in the city of Chōshi, Chiba, Japan, operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) and also used by the private railway operator Choshi Electric Railway.

Lines
Chōshi Station is the eastern terminal station of the Sōbu Main Line and serves some through trains on the Narita Line to Sawara and Narita. It is 120.5 km from the western terminus of the Sōbu Main Line at Tokyo Station. It also forms the terminus of the privately operated Chōshi Electric Railway Line to Tokawa.

Station layout
The JR East station facilities consist of one side platform and one island platform serving three tracks. A bay platform is located between the JR platforms 2 and 3 for Choshi Electric Railway trains. The station has a "Midori no Madoguchi" staffed ticket office.

History
Chōshi Station opened on 1 June 1897 as a station on the Sōbu Railway. On 1 September 1907, the Sōbu Railway was nationalized, becoming part of the Japanese Government Railway (JGR).

The Chōshi Electric Railway Line from Choshi to Tokawa opened on 5 July 1923, using the trackbed and infrastructure of the earlier Chōshi Sightseeing Railway (銚子遊覧鉄道), which operated between Chōshi and Inuboh from December 1913 to November 1917. The original station building was replaced by a new two-storey wood-frame-and-mortar building in 1936. An additional platform was added at the same time, and a new underground passage was opened linking the new platform. The 1936 station building lasted only nine years, as it was destroyed in 1945 by fire during World War II. The third-generation station building was completed in January 1948, and a further platform was added at the same time, creating the three-platform arrangement that continues to this day.

After World War II, JGR became the Japanese National Railways (JNR). Scheduled freight operations were suspended from 31 March 1978. The station was absorbed into the JR East network upon the privatization of JNR on 1 April 1987.

A roof was added to the entrance to the Choshi Electric Railway platform in December 1974, and this was replaced by the present-day Dutch-style building in November 1990.

Passenger statistics
In fiscal 2019, the JR portion of the station was used by an average of 3045 passengers daily (boarding passengers only). In fiscal 2018, the Choshi Electric Railway station was used by an average of 384 passengers daily (boarding passengers only). The passenger figures for previous years are as shown below.

Surrounding area

 * Chōshi City Office
 * Chiba Institute of Science
 * Yamasa head office and soy sauce factory
 * Higeta soy sauce factory
 * Choshi Camera Museum
 * Futaba Elementary School
 * Tone River

Bus terminal
The following long-distance buses operate from Choshi Station.